Cause and Effect
by silverserpent08
Summary: The war is over, the pilots are heroes, the rebels are restless, the Preventers are swamped, and the government wants blood. What is the effect of all this? yaoi/slash. Rating may increase. 5x?, 5 ?
1. Chapter 1

Ch 1

* * *

Wufei walked past the local run-down market on the L2 colony, covered with the usual vandalism that was incorporated into this type of neighborhood. He was now used to seeing windows with the cracked patterns of spider webs and spray paint the color of rainbows being used as markings for gang territories. All of the lovely comforts of L2, Duo must have had it rough growing up as a kid.

Turning left down a trash cluttered street, he dubbed 'Crack alley', Wufei headed towards the gray bricked building. It loomed out next to the others; one of the few buildings with some form of architecture to it, a simple arching doorway.

He jimmied the lock open quickly and locked it behind him before heading up to the second floor. He entered one of the small rooms off the main hall and came to one of the cleanest areas for a two mile radius.

Sally had left on a mission five days ago that was stated as 'extremely important'. She had looked at Wufei so worriedly that he had instantly agreed to stay on L2 where they had been stationed for the month long period directly after the Mariemeia incident. One month since his screw up. Oh well. Heero said he had forgiven him, as did the others. They really were comrades to the end and apparently even after the end had come and gone.

While here, Wufei picked out this one room flat for the somewhat decent locks and the window that had a garbage bin below it; an easy escape route if it was ever necessary. The set up wasn't half bad for a condemned building. Cleaning it to his normal standards had taken a full two days.

Wufei avoided walking over the center of the room as he moved over toward the window to see if anyone was around. There was a rug down in the center that hid a hole and shaky support for the floor.

No movement outside in crack alley and Wufei sat down under the window. He was tired. It had been five days since Sally had left. To keep busy he had been reporting to the tiny Preventer branch that was four miles away about local drug rings and revolution plots that were brewing in these L2 slums.

Une had told him to simply sit tight until Sally came back and continue to report on any activity that was being initiated around that area. Easy enough mission, cake actually compared to what he was hearing on the news when he stopped by the local Preventer branch. There were emergency responses from Preventers on a daily basis, sweeping in to put out rebellions before they had the barest chance of growing, riots brewing in every corner of the globe, and politicians wanting the people who incited the Mariemeia incident to burn.

It was a strange situation in the world at the moment, pacifism with a highly defensive edge to it, with a very strong emphasis on highly. The style seemed to fit the new world order though, and while Wufei felt his skills could be used elsewhere more effectively, he found he liked his position of belonging within the Preventers even if he was just reporting on plotting gangs and drug problems. Everything helped a little. At least that was what he was telling himself to stay sane while holed up in the building that needed to be demolished and had no health standards applied to it.

His cell beeped and he glanced at the caller - Duo. Heero and Duo appeared to be taking turns calling every other day for the last three weeks. At least it was a break in the monotony; at the same time it was so fixed into his schedule perhaps it was now part of it. "Hello?"

"Wuffers! My man! Just the guy I wanted to chat too." Wufei let a small smirk on his face emerge. It was good that Duo's enthusiasm had been neither inflated nor curbed by the end of the war. "Hey, guess who you're gonna see tomorrow?"

May as well go along, "Who?" he asked.

"Why me of course! And Heero and Sally and Trowa and Quatre too!" Wufei was silent staring at the composite door with the maroon paint peeling from it. That was a major crew coming in. Something big was going down. The largest number of the pilots together so far after the war was three. And to have Quatre coming in…he had retired from the business of taking down the enemy. "Hellooooo….You there Fei Fei?"

"Why?"

There was a low tone in his voice when he stated the next phrase, "We'll let you know tomorrow. Toddles!"

The line went silent in Wufei's ear. He shut the phone and let it hit the floor as he thought about the call. The heavy hitters were coming. Une would only band them together if something major was about to go down. The blood started pumping through his veins a little faster. This would be amazing, the challenge he was waiting for.

He breathed in deeply and settled into a meditative position. Store the adrenalin, use it for the mission.

Whatever they were going to be thrown into, he would be ready.

* * *

TBC...


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 02

* * *

Wufei headed towards the L2 Preventer branch to meet with the other pilots the next morning. There was a slight hum in his veins. He was excited for the potential mission ahead. It had to be big if Une was calling in all of the Gundam pilots. He had been tired of waiting and gathering information on small gangs and drug traffickers. He wanted to go in to heavily armed situations and disarm them rapidly. It was one of the things he did best.

The run down cement building that was the Preventer's L2 branch was dirty and in no way where an upstanding peace keeping force should be residing. The only reason it was the Preventer branch on L2 was because it was one of the few buildings that was up to the standard fire code that was needed for government buildings. It had fire escapes on the exterior walls from the roof to the alley below.

Wufei strode quickly up the steps of the substandard building and into the main entrance with the very basic front desk check point. The secretary nodded to him, knowing who he was already from the few times he came in to do formal reports to superiors in the branch.

He started up to the third floor conference room when he heard thunderous running footsteps heading towards him rapidly. Wufei turned with seconds to spare before a full sized Duo Maxwell tackled him in a full body grip he liked to call the kamikaze hug. Duo stepped back before Wufei could push him away chirping, "Wu-man I've missed you so much! You are so talkative compared to He-chan."

Wufei shook his head in response and saw Quatre coming up the stairs behind him. "Hello Quatre. Good to see you again." Wufei stated, "What are the mission details that I should be looking forward to?"

Duo shrugged and went bolting up the stairs. Odd behavior for their co-pilot but not completely un-Maxwell like. Wufei looked at Quatre quizzically, who motioned towards the steps, "It will all be explained shortly. Trowa and Heero are already up at the third floor conference room. "

Wufei nodded and continued up the stairs as indicated, but something seemed slightly off. He shrugged. It was the excitement of the possible mission. He just wasn't thinking correctly. They may have said that the war was over, but he still had his killer instincts wired up to war-time levels and that was unlikely to change any time soon.

Up on the third floor Trowa and Heero nodded to him and Heero entered the room. Going to the right around by the second door Duo was already parked leaning against the door on the side wall. Wufei circled opposite them and settled close to the window. He was unsettled. Something did not seem right. When Trowa and Quatre came in and closed the door behind them he looked up and realized there was a pair of pilots at either door. Either escape route. He schooled his face to neutral despite growing feeling of wrongness within him.

Quatre turned to face him from his position at the end of the conference table, while Wufei subtly moved closer to the window at the far end of the room. "Where's Sally?" Wufei questioned. His partner was missing. Duo looked down at his feet. Guilt was scrawled across his face and he began fiddling with the end of his braid. A mark of worry for pilot zero two that Wufei had seen multiple times before. His eyes narrowed.

"There is no mission for all of us is there? Why are you all here?"

Trowa was silent behind Quatre unmoving and Wufei felt Heero's gaze itching all over. Both of them silently attentive. Apparently Quatre would be the spokesperson for this little gathering, but to what end? He had a prickling along his spine that told him he would not like the answer to that.

"We've come to bring you to earth." Quatre said simply.

"To what end?" He stated voice carefully controlled to neutral. Perhaps he was just imagining it. Maybe… just maybe…

"I'm very sorry Wufei, but the ESUN government has demanded your arrest and trial. We believe it will be fair and long from our understanding. Lady Une has assured me that she will be compiling a case for your defense. At most it should be three months in prison. Not that lon-"

"Three months in prison?" Wufei hissed eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I'm sorry, Wufei, I really am!. We've been fighting for your exemption even Relena has been-"

"So what is all of your job then? To come retrieve me? To take me in, because I would come quietly with all of you as opposed to fighting, which is what should be happening?"

Heero spoke up succinctly, "The blanket pardon was for the first war. It was your involvement with Mariemeia that is causing this."

"And what!" He raised his voice angrily, "That makes all of your betrayal here today okay?" He shook his head fiercely. "Look at me!" He yelled. He inched slightly closer to the window. Feeling trapped, mind skipping plans quickly. Duo's eyes shot up and he locked onto him. "You are alright with handing me over to rot in jail." Duo's eyes sunk to the floor and he kind of curled in on himself. Good.

"Of all the times we fought together, all the mistakes we made in battle together. What makes this alright to you? How is this okay?" Trowa cast his eyes sideways unable to meet the narrowed black ones drilling through him into the wall. Heero started inching around the desk. He needed to move quicker, before he got any closer.

"And you Quatre. Hiding behind your politics, thinking this will be fair and just. I have lived through the same war you did. You know that the system will always be broken. And it's worse now, when good people like yourself are letting it continue on its path." Quatre's gaze focused inward. The words penetrating his façade. Wufei turned to Heero. "You would let them do this to your brother in arms?"

He tightened his jaw and inched forward half a step cautiously. "It is only three month."

"That does not make it okay. You know what we've sacrificed. You know what I am willing to do for this new government! And yet you are here like the perfect little soldier you are to turn in your fellow pilot. How is this right?" He yelled. Heero stopped his forward advance and evidence of concern crossed his face. "You are betraying me. You are letting me burn for things that should lay dead." He stepped back no longer in the ready position. One glance at Quatre, saw that he was coming to his moral conclusions in his head that would lead Wufei to a prison. It had to be now.

Instantly he threw his elbow back through the window that showered glass, cutting his bicep. Heero started moving so he shoved the nearest chair into his path and launched himself through the window out onto the fire escape. Grabbing the cement building edge he pulled himself up to the roof as he felt a swipe tear at his pant leg.

Rolling up he darted quickly across the roof hearing the clang of boot on metal behind him. He leapt clearing the three story drop below him, before sprinting to a large air duct on the neighboring building. Ripping off the covering he launched feet first down the vertical drop using his arms and legs to try to slow the descent. Till he hit the bottom grate and fell through to the first floor.

He felt his ankle go crunch below him and struggled to get up. Putting weight on it ended with searing pain, he focused momentarily trying to ignore it. Then hobbled towards what would be the back alley and away from the Preventer building as fast as he could. There was no way he was going to go rot in a prison cell. They were insane if they thought otherwise.

And it hurt. Not his ankle. He could ignore it he had been shot and finished missions before the ankle was nothing. But the fact that they could all so easily turn on him! His mind couldn't settle between glimpses of absolute rage and sadness that was being thrown at him. And betrayal.

He hobbled the four miles back to his safe-house studio and looked around the street for conformation of all clear. No one had caught up with him so far. He had the advantage.

Silently he eased to the cracked lock on went up the stairs to his apartment. He grabbed his med kit and two floor boards that were sitting around the condemned space and began making a splint for his ankle. It was most likely sprained, not broken. A good thing.

He began gathering his pack up when he heard it. The creak of movement in the hallway outside his room. Wufei drew his gun. Panic seeping into his conscience. He was not going down like this. He refused to be taken to prison. By his comrades, his s friends-

The door was kicked open and Heero entered gun drawn and Duo circled in around him. Wufei kept the gun trained on Heero and threw the bag up onto his shoulder edging directly across the carpet from them towards the window he always kept.

Duo eased into the room first hands up defensively showing he had no weapon on him. Wufei still didn't lower his. "I'm sorry Wufei, but this really will be the easiest way. We gotta take you in." Wufei glared hard and Duo kept inching forward across the room.

"I won't go willingly. You knew that when you took this assignment."

"We thought it would be better coming from your friends."

"You thought wrong."

Wufei quickly stepped back to kneel on the window ledge as Duo lunged forward and immediately fell through the carpet covered hole barely grabbing the board edges. Wufei threw his body backwards out the window and flipped to face the garbage bin he was to land on.

His eyes widened. Someone had closed the lid.

He slammed into the plastic lid hard jarring his shoulder on impact and rolling him to fall onto the concrete. Wufei felt dazed as his head cracked the concrete of the street. He lay there stunned for a moment and pushed himself one handed up into a standing position, beginning to limp slowly away.

A calm presence came behind him and a firm hand grabbed his uninjured shoulder. "Trowa."

"I'm sorry." Was all her whispered and Wufei felt a pinch at the base of his neck before falling into a deep unconsciousness.

* * *

TBC…


	3. Chapter 3

Ch03

* * *

The snipping of scissors was the first noise that made it into his ears as he awoke slowly. Wufei felt a slight tug on his arm and heard the distinct snip again. Around him he felt the distinct, but soft vibrations of a shuttle craft.

So they had succeeded. He was earth bound to his sentencing and imprisonment. He opened his eyes to see Trowa packing up a medical kit. A glance at his upper arm showed stitches. He must have been clipping the ends of the stitches from the glass of the first window at Preventer headquarters. Trying to rotate his ankle proved to make it feel firm with bandages. So they were treating his wounds with care.

Who cared? They were throwing him to the dogs, leaving him to rot. Instead of warning him to start on the run they decided to take him down easily in a trap.

He was a fool to trust anyone.

Trowa was leaving this sector of the hatch. Wufei couldn't help himself, "Good thing I taught you that nerve pinch. Lets you take me down easily guilt free from behind." He sneered putting as much disdain into his voice as he could. That was one good thing his elite socialite upbringing had given him.

Trowa ducked his head quietly and proceeded through the bulkhead door.

Wufei tested his arm restraints quickly- magnetic cuffs from wrist to elbow. He wouldn't be able to get them off. A slight jerk of his good leg proved he was restrained the same way on his legs down below. He leaned back in his seat sullen anger building inside of him. It was Quatre's jet too. All the cushions that luxury could afford. He had loaned out his personal jet for this capture mission. Not only did they do this voluntarily they brought along the best equipment possible to do so.

The hatch door opened and Wufei determinedly looked out the window at the starts and satellites floating around. It was Quatre and Duo. Quatre sat across from him, Duo took the one across the aisle from him. "I know you are angry with us." Quatre said. That was the understatement of the century. "I'm very sorry for you having to go through this, I just know that it is the easier way. Initially they wanted a bounty on you. We convinced them otherwise and said we would bring you in ourselves."

Duo nodded beside him. "Honest Fei. We really didn't want to do this, but all the options were pointing to the fact that this was it. We're your friends. We want to help. Really." He sounded sad and broken. Wufei refuse to acknowledge the fact that they were there.

There was no point. They didn't understand. There could have been countless other ways to help him, but instead they chose to betray his trust and the time they spent in the war fighting with each other. They each got up and moved away after a while when they realized he would not acknowledge them or their apology.

The hatch shut behind them Quatre was gripping his chest.

His stupid empathetic space heart. What trivial bullshit. He didn't begin to scratch the surface of what they did to him. There was no one he could trust anymore. When your closest allies betray you in the most powerful way possible, what was left?

Nothing.

He felt his jaw tighten and any scant ability to relax flow from his mind. He was going to face a military hearing for war crimes. Despite the blanket pardon from before his actions in the previous war would come up. He would not be judge solely on the latest incident it would be all of it. Any hatred towards the Gundams, whether it was him or the other Gundam pilots, would be taken by him.

The hatch opened one more time and Heero entered. Sitting across from him as Quatre had. He must have heard the others got the silent treatment. Buy was he in for a surprise.

"Tell me Yuy. Do you feel anything?"

He started. So they had told him that Wufei was being silent. "Yes."

"I don't believe it. Nothing you have done has shown me any scratch of feeling or loyalty."

He shook his head and looked at his hands. "I was given the mission to obtain you and"

"Well you've accomplished that. You're the perfect fucking soldier. You started this plan of yours three weeks ago calling for my status and having Duo do the same. You were triangulating my position through those calls the whole time weren't you?" Wufei's eyes narrowed. "You didn't even bother to think about what you called a friendship with me did you. Just went right along with your mission. Head in the sand as usual."

"No." He ground out. Shaking his head. "You're wrong. I care for you. I-"

Wufei cut him off again, "You don't care. You don't even know what that means. If you did I wouldn't be here right now I'd be on a mission fighting for what's right. You've betrayed me for your mission, Heero. You're perfect standing as the perfect soldier stays."

He shook his head. Eyes turned inwards Unseeing. "You betrayed me, Heero! You all did! You don't do that to people you care about! You don't do that to friends." Heero stood up backing towards the door. Unable to do more than shake his head back and forth eyes unseeing.

Wufei was screaming from his seat as Heero backed through the door. "You don't plot for weeks against you're friends Heero! You bastard! All you think about is objectives and the pat on the head you'll get from your master when you get back! You betrayed me! You don't care at all!" Trowa grabbed his arm and pulled him fully through the hatch letting it slide shut behind him. Wufei had seen Quatre bringing on the other side holding his chest. Good.

He didn't know what pain was.

Wufei leaned back into his seat and watched out the window solemnly as the earth approached closer, marking his final destination.

* * *

Wufei had been in this holding cell for a week with no contact from anyone after he had been marched off the shuttle.

The sentencing was going to be in a couple of hours, but Wufei seemed to feel the press of what was to come already. There was no way the outcome would be good. This was just a preliminary judgment by one man for his holding and future proceedings of trial.

He kept here boots of ESUN guards wandering back and forth outside his cell. On rounds or checking on inmates or taking criminals in to get sentenced. The new system had taken a more streamline approach to justice that wasn't necessarily just.

It used to enrage Wufei to think about. But that was when he still thought some people had a sense of morals. Now he just waited calm and collected. There was no use for his fight here and now. He knew what he was about to face. And if the pilots for a second really thought that he would somehow come out of this without being sent to prison, they were blinded from the truth.

Wufei exhaled and schooled his face to neutral as he heard the locks on his steal cage click open. It was time. He had three escorts two holding his arms leading him with his hands still magnetically cuffed. His legs had the restraints as well but were not activated. At the press of a button they could be though, which kept Wufei focused. There was no escape at this point. No point in trying. They had left him to his fate. Traitors.

He was lead into a well lit room. Which both surprisingly and unsurprisingly held cameras. But not marked by the media insignia. So they were recording it, but not for mass media purposes. There was no sign of Quatre or Relena or the others. Just the three guards escorting, one behind that was heavily armed and the man who was both exulting over his podium and hiding behind it.

The judge. Wufei did not like him at all. Old, wrinkled, with grey hair peering down at him ominously. Wufei saw they hatred and vindictiveness in his skinny viper-like frame and narrowed eyes. No. Wufei doubted that this would go anything like a normal sentencing was supposed to. Fools.

He began immediately in his superior speech, "Wufei, Chang pilot of Gundam 05, you have been charged with an enemy to the governing body of the ESUN, a class one terrorist, a mass murdering vigilante, with multiple counts for crimes against humanity. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty." He spoke clearly and firmly eyes rising to challenge to dare the judge to say otherwise.

Fire rose in the man's grey eyes, "How can you stand there and claim that? With the full body of evidence for the past years of war agains-"

"As you should know" Wufei interrupted, "There was a blanket pardon released for war crimes before the Mariemeia incident at which time I acted to bring peac-"

"There is still insurmountable evidenc-"

Wufei continued speaking uninterrupted. " During the incident I harmed no one and switched to defend against the invasion"

"I will not tolerate…"

"And signed up for work with the Preventers as part of our current governments peace keeping for-

"Silence!" He bellowed. "I will not tolerate you speaking out of turn again."

Wufei glared "I simply seek to establish a defense against this clear violation of my civil liberties under the ESUN charter. One that you should know as well."

"I said be quiet." He glowered at Wufei, trying to melt him in the spot. Wufei would not stand for it. "This is a closed sentencing to prevent media mayhem that goes along with the case and because you had too many evidentiary witnesses," Wufei glared. Too many people wanted to speak for him and he was a public hero of sorts. He could read between the lines.

"Your trial will take place three months from today. Until that time because you are a class one terrorist we will be holding you in a maximum security prison to be decided with limited visitation rights. If you can provide a defense yourself we will assign you a public defender." Wufei stayed defiant glaring at the boney skinny imbecile in front of him. "Get out of my sight."

Wufei turned before the guards could touch him and began walking back the path they came. They would hold him overnight in the cell and transfer him tomorrow.

He was shoved unnecessarily into the cell and the door slammed behind him. He sat down on the cold metal bench that was bolted to the floor. There was no way that was a legal trial setting or prison sentencing. That judge knew what he was doing was wrong in every possible way. He just didn't care. Wufei didn't care. Other than the boiling rage at the judge. And the pilots. And everyone.

Four hours later he heard quick moving steps moving towards his cell. The door spring open and Quatre moved in quickly. "Wufei I'm so sorry! They moved the court and the time. This was completely unknown to me. How could they have done this? It goes against all prisoner rights ever set up!" Quatre seemed frantic. Wufei wanted to pop his head off his shoulders.

Quatre took a deep breath and paused. "I'm so very sorry Wufei. I will have you out of here. There is no way that they can keep you here."

Wufei nodded. "You're right. They can't keep me here. They will be transferring me to a maximum security prison." Quatre's eyes went wide.

"I will get my lawyers on this tomorrow. I can't believe the injustice of this."

"What did you think was going to happen?" Wufei whispered. "That they would trot me in evaluate my performance and let me go. I'm on trial as a terrorist with crimes against humanity from the first war. I'm standing trial in place of all of you."

Quatre shook his head. "They can't do that!"

"Wake up, Quatre! They just did!" Wufei yelled.

Quatre froze in place and collected himself. "I will visit you in a week and Duo may come as well. Heero believes he will see you in three months." Wufei shook his head and closed his eyes. They were all traitorous fools. His closets comrades were idiots. "Trowa wanted me to give you this." Quatre held out a slip of paper.

Wufei took it, but did not look at it. Did he really want to see what else had been written to him to try to appease him? Quatre turned and left saying "I will see you in a week."

The door shut quickly behind him and Wufei sat in his restraints quietly till he unfolded the note.

I'm sorry. I will not be visiting you. I can't see you like this. Please forgive me.

-Trowa

Wufei growled threw the note and slammed his restraints uselessly against the steal walls of his cell. He was in here because of them. He was like this because of them! Forgive him?

Never.

* * *

TBC….


	4. Chapter 4

Ch 4

* * *

Wufei felt the heavy magnetic restraints around his wrist pulling down and was strangely happy to have them. Now was not the time to lose his head and feeling their weight was all that was keeping him in check within a slight state of reality. This was actually happening. He had been taken away in the early morning to arrive here at the prison. He changed into the standard prison uniform of the high security prison, a thin white cotton shirt and the dark navy cotton drawstring pants that were somewhat durable. The halogens lights above him gave a faintly pale bluish coloration to his skin tone. He thought it made him look sickly.

The place was sterile and made entirely of concrete and tile. No glass unless it had the thin metal reinforcing mesh to strengthen it. Everything else had been metal bars and razor wire to the prisoners in.

The two guards flanking him throughout the establishment were carrying automatic side-arms. This could have been simply standard procedure...or they could have been taking extra precautions. He did not know which.

They directed him through a large metal door with a small window in it. It looked new and recently installed; it slid open without a sound. "Move." He stepped into the small room; there was another door in front of him that appeared to be much older. The two guards followed him in and the door slid shut behind them. As soon as it shut the one in front opened outwards.

The room was long and open with cells lining the walls. It was the main block, two levels of steel and concrete holding in some of the 'world's most dangerous criminals'. Too bad he helped put half of the people in here after the war in his short term working with those...traitors.

Fuck them. The Preventers too.

"Walk." The guard was annoying, but efficient; Wufei had to give him that. He stepped forward confidently; the inmates here would appreciate him being under eighteen and smaller then probably all of them. He needed to exude disdain. The cellblock was surprisingly quite, for the number of people that it housed. It appeared to hold three hundred people in the block. Two people per cell. They were all awake and watching.

Wufei didn't tense up, just strode forward under all the stares. Random calls were now being yelled at him through their bars. Didn't matter though, the prisoners were all full of meaningless crap and probably bored of the monotony from living in this place day in and day out.

The guards led him to the other end of the cellblock and directed him into the last cell on the ground floor. There was no roommate in it, just a single bunk bed for him alone. They had explained when he came in that he would have his own room as a trial period until he got used to prison. They didn't say how long that trial period would be, but they would move him into a double when they thought he was ready. Wufei felt that the way they said that was slightly…ominous. The guards deactivated the restraints and motioned with their guns for Wufei to enter. He would not make it far out of the prison if he moved against them. So he stepped forward.

The bars slid shut behind him and the guards left for the other end. Wufei walked forward more to get into the cell further. It was small, just the bunk bed and a toilet.

He lay on the top bunk and stared at the ceiling. Quatre said he would visit in a week; the others might come… except for Trowa. Bastard.

Now to wait. It was doubtful he would sleep tonight.

Day one.

The hall outside his bars was dim as only the emergency lights flickered in the cell block. He could hear the early morning movements of some of the other prisoners. "Everybody up!" Echoed down the hall and the fluorescents lights came on full blast in the corridor and his personal cell. "Hey you! Time to get up!" The guard rounded the corner and was surprised to see that Wufei was already alert and standing in front of the bars to be let out. Wufei had figured they would have a tightly controlled schedule. He had gotten up earlier when he started to hear movement from other prisoners echoing in their cells. The man chuckled, "Had a hard time sleeping here your first night, huh pretty boy?" then moved off to pick out other stragglers of the routine.

The schedule was to make the guards' jobs easier by maintaining a strict system and reduce the chance of mishaps within the prison. Wufei was ready for the day. He hadn't slept as predicted, just meditated and thought about his situation throughout the night.

Today would be a day of observation and nothing more. Work out the schedule; see who would be a threat and who would be a mere annoyance. The bars slid open and Wufei stepped out, waiting for further instructions. He could feel all the other prisoners' eyes on him, but he carefully controlled his face to reflect neutral disdain. "All clear! Free time!"

Wufei turned back into his cell. He didn't feel the urge to take a shower at the moment, nor did he feel like associating with his fellow inmates. Friendship didn't hold its promise of everlasting bonds on the outside of this soon to be hell hole, why would it be different on the inside.

He had four days until Quatre would come, if he honored his promise, and while he wasn't sure if he would forgive the blonde at least he would have someone from his past for a short thirty minute stint. His overall rage at the situation hadn't dimmed any, just bubbled lower beneath the surface.

After an hour, by Wufei's mental clock, they were once again yelled at to move to the cafeteria area of the complex. Wufei made sure he was at the back of the pack. They were led through the same doors that he had entered through last night, but the pack moved down a different hallway to the right. Once he entered he got in line and waited. All inmates from the four different cell blocks were present and all eyes were on him. Apparently word of a new inmate had spread quickly. It was making his skin crawl, but with his practiced neutrality in body posture it was easy to not give away his sentiments towards these people.

He grabbed a tray as he drew close to the front and was handed a plate of grey mush that looked as though it was supposed to be mashed potatoes; all the while he felt the itching sensation along his spine and a slight increase in the muttering behind him. He was the newest addition to their fold and obviously it was causing quite a buzz.

It was going to be a long three months.

Day two.

Wufei followed the flow of the day. It was get up and get clean for an hour, breakfast for one hour, then yard time for three. Then lunch for one hour. After that was work detail for three hours and another hour of 'free time' then dinner for another hour. Then they would be escorted back to their cell blocks for free time for one hour before it was lights out for the night. It was a twelve hour day.

It was now the last hour of free time before lights out and Wufei was tucked away in his cell reading a book he had borrowed from the prison library. At least it wasn't the worst way to spend time; then again the library did not have a very extensive collection.

No one had approached him the first day or the second, only watched from a far. Good. He just wanted to be left the fuck alone. Didn't want to make any friends, didn't need to since this is where he ended up as a result. They would betray him in the end and that was something he would not tolerate happening again.

No one had bothered him. But that didn't mean it would hold out. "Line up!" echoed out over the speakers. Wufei stood and moved just outside his cell, only to turn back in when they indicated and have the bars shut for the night.

He lay down once more and attempted to meditate. He was still raging inside at the other's actions. How he ended up here, because they volunteered. They know he could have disappeared and Une…Une could have done something. He had Une and Quatre and Relena on his side…or at least he did at one point. And they could have done something.

Wufei breathed in and out again. Just three days.

Day three.

Today would be like yesterday. He would be left alone, follow the crowd, and keep his head down. He didn't need the attention. It was the fact that he was a Gundam pilot that made him land in this place. The other people who were actually more devoted to the Mariemeia cause could claim brainwashing or temporary insanity or some other strange diagnosis and get off.

The ancient bars slid open with a grinding noise and the guard yelled, "Everybody out!" Wufei dutifully stepped through and waited. Immediately he noticed something different in the air. Everyone was watching him again like the previous day, but this time eyes were sliding between him and this large beefy inmate about six two, with a barbed wire tattoo around his neck. Wufei internally sighed. The man came up in his observations as a potential problem the last two days, but he had sincerely hoped the guy would just leave him alone.

The prison appeared to be organized into four main groups and a scattering of random inmates. It made sense considering the four cellblocks, but the other three cellblocks had obvious leaders unlike this one. The other three seemed a lot more organized as well, he could see it in the cafeteria and when they all had yard time together.

The cellblock he was in appeared to be a lot less organized; more out of fear of an individual and his lackeys. That individual of course was the barbed-wire tattooed, shaved-head man, who appeared to be the leader.

Wufei decided to ignore the warning signs and act as though nothing caused his reflexes to fire, by deciding to shower before breakfast. The shower was a large completely tiled room with eight shower heads and two drains. Others joined him in the showers that morning and he could feel them checking him out. It had been the first time he had showered since entering the prison and he had yet to work out in front of any of them. Curiosity must have been driving them mad; the allure of fresh meat in such a petite package compared to the rest of them.

Wufei had heard noises in the night indicating that anal intercourse definitely occurred here. In some cases it was desired, in others it obviously was not, but the guards did not seem to care either way.

Finishing and dressing slowly he made his way to the cafeteria and sat alone at an empty table much like the two previous days. Not as many people were paying attention to him as the first two days. A good sign as far as he was concerned, although it was still disconcerting to have them watching him constantly.

A shadow fell over his tray, but Wufei didn't bother to look up. He had already felt the presence of the barbed wire man before he came over. Besides, it wouldn't help. "I believe you are sitting in my seat." The man had a smirk in his voice, in his stance and on his face, one that his lackeys mimicked.

Wufei calmly picked up his tray and moved to another empty table, sat and began eating. The group that was following the man sat after he did.

There would be no point to a fight. Not to lie low. Not to survive peacefully for three months, especially if he took down a man that had nearly a foot in height on him. It would cause a stir within the system he did not want to deal with.

Every person in the cafeteria had watched the exchange, but now went back to their meals. Yet Wufei still felt the eyes of three inmates that bothered him severely, the eyes of the three people that concerned him most in this jail.

Day four.

One more day. One more day till Quatre came. One hundred and sixteen days until he was out of this concrete cage. It was strange that he was still so infuriated at their betrayal, but was now depending on one of them to calm his fraying nerves. This place was already gnawing at his tight control only four days in and Quatre's visit was the light at the end of the tunnel.

Nothing had happened the previous day after the cafeteria incident. He sat alone in the yard watching the other inmates and thinking. He had gone to lunch without incident, then went to work in the library, a position he landed after requesting it on the second day, strangely. Then after dinner he read in his room again before lights out.

Then the routine had to start all over again. Wufei almost sighed when a shadow fell across his cafeteria tray again. Almost.

"I think you are in my seat, little man."

Wufei moved to pick up his tray as he rose. "I think that's my food you're trying to take."

Wufei simply let go of the tray and move to an empty table in the corner. People watched him again, though not as many. Some were losing interest, while other's interest was all too obvious. Wufei felt their eye on him even as he closed his own to meditate. To escape this place.

Day five.

Wufei was awake and doing pushups in his cell instead of waiting for the morning call. He did not feel the need to expose his capabilities to the others, but he didn't want to go soft at the same time and at the moment his cell seemed the only safe harbor.

No one had yet to approach him in any way near his cell. He felt that it was off limits somehow to everyone, but did not know why. The only prisoner interaction he had was the occasional one-liners a customer would say to a hooker and the tattooed man, who apparently went by the initial T. He was a common thug judging by the way he acted. Not too smart, but knew how to put fear into a person just right.

"Everybody up!" Wufei pushed himself up and stepped out of his cell. A guard came up to him, "You have a visitor. Come with me." Wufei stepped out of line and walked down the cellblock and out the steel double doors. Instead of heading to the right down to the cafeteria, they headed instead to the left, where he had come from on his first night. They paused before a door and put handcuffs on him. They were flimsy, but it was not like he was going out of the prison. Magnetic restraints seemed to only be used in and out of the prison. Wufei mentally noted that. The guards still carried their semi-automatics though.

Behind the door was a room with several tables, the other end was made of chain link fence. At one of the plastic tables in the middle was Quatre. He smiled and rose to give Wufei a hug. He allowed it momentarily, before stepping out of the blonde's arms. As angry as he was, he couldn't help but feel slightly calmer around the boy. Quatre always did have that effect on the other pilots though. "How are you?"

Wufei shrugged and sat down at the table. He didn't know what to say to Quatre. 'I'm glad you came. At least you kept one of your promises.' Or how about 'where the hell was everyone else?', 'why did you do this to me in the first place?'

He settled for, "How is my case going?"

Quatre visibly relaxed. He had never been good at hiding his emotions. "Well" he said cheerfully, "I've hired the top two lawyers that are experienced with military tribunals. They are both highly interested in defending you. They'll be in next week with me to discuss the charges and begin building defense." His smile faltered slightly when Wufei did not seem as relieved at the news as he had hoped.

He reached behind him for a small package that he had brought with him. "Duo thought it would be nice for you to receive something, so he looked up a bunch of old movies and everyone always brought pie. He baked cookies instead, but that's Duo for you." He set the package in front of Wufei. "He says that he's spry he couldn't be here today. I think he still has problems with prisons since the moonbase incident. Maybe earlier than that."

Wufei nodded in thanks. Duo would be Duo, but that didn't mean he would show up to the prison for him. Still it was a nice gesture. Quatre continued, "Trowa is working on a project that he hopes will help you."

"How can it help me if he won't even come to visit?" Quatre visibly winced and Wufei tried harder to control his growing, but still hidden rage. He shrugged it off.

Quatre hesitated briefly then whispered, "Heero is being Heero. He says he will see you in three months if not sooner." He paused again before continuing, "He really needs to talk to you."

Wufei frowned frustrated. Heero needed to talk to him. Really needed to talk to him. Bullshit. "And when will you talk to me, Quatre? When will you explain to me how you could have carted me off so easily?"

Quatre looked pained and then easily slipped into business mode. Wufei knew the look well. The conversation was over, "I will apologize to you after I finish my number one priority of getting you out. It was good seeing you again. I'll see you next week."

He turned and left abruptly and the guard was calling Wufei to come back to his cell block. He quickly grabbed the small package and followed the guard out, who released the cuffs before letting him back in with the other cellmates. Wufei carefully tucked away the package under the pillow of his top bunk before lying back on the bottom bunk trying not to think, just staring at the rusty bars supporting the top mattress.

Another week before Quatre's next visit, a full seven days this time. A new light at the end of the tunnel to drive towards and focus on.

But for some reason the light seemed a lot dimmer then before.

* * *

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

CH 5

* * *

Day 6

The weekends were not much more different than the weekdays. That could be fortunately or unfortunately really. What little if any peace that Quatre's visit had offered him meant nothing now and it had only been a day. Wufei's patience had been tried and pushed to the limit. And while he was still being harassed by the giant oaf T, he at least found a place to practice his martial training away from prying eyes.

The library proved to be his safe haven. He worked on a different schedule then the other prisoners. He had his work time and free time switched so right after lunch he had an hour of free time and then three hours of work, so that the other inmates would have access to the library during their own free time.

The library, being small, and Wufei, being an efficient worker, had been easy to reorganize, clean up and maintain during the first four days. There was no guard posted inside with him, but rather outside in the hall to watch over his door and other inmates in charge of mopping the halls. So during the two hours he had free in the library without other inmates he cleared out the desks from the center of the room and moved through his katas.

They took him back to his center, to his peace, if only for the moment. If only to leave the rage at his friends and the situation, at the thugs, at T, and at being totally alone in the world, it was worth it. He knew he could not control this forever without some sort of place to reset.

So for two hours a day he could do that; he could relax completely. He could drop his constant edge and tight grip on his emotions to replace it with a different type of control. A control made of nothingness. To keep his body fit and give his mind a break.

At night he could do nothing like this. The cell was too small other than for pushups and sit ups. Meditation had been tried. Sometimes it was successful. Sometimes it was not. It depended on whether his mind would quite down from thinking of every detail on the pilots face as they came to capture him, or hunting down every path of his mind for some form of reason to this madness. A why to it all.

The noises at night between cellmates were slightly disconcerting as well. They interrupted his thoughts and Wufei somehow doubted he would be avoiding that aspect of the jail forever. It was not that he was opposed to male on male relations, but rather that some of the noises were definitely not of desire. That was something he could not wipe from his mind. Even though these men were scum bags, no person deserved to be...

Wufei shook his head to clear his thoughts once more and pushed the last desk out of the way. He had two hours to refocus; now was not the time to be thinking.

Stepping into the center of the room he inhaled deeply, cleared his mind, and began.

Day 7

Wufei had learned to start eating while retrieving the rest of his meal from the lunch line. He didn't do it with urgency as it would tip off the rest of the prison mates, but instead he did it with a relaxed demeanor of someone strolling in a park with an apple; the stained cement walls were not exactly a park unless you were on L2, but the idea was the same.

Then when T would challenge him for his food, which was becoming an every meal occurrence, he could easily give it up and not worry about going entirely hungry. He had already noticed that he was losing weight, mostly what little fat he had on him was starting to go. Duo's cookies were becoming an excellent source of fats and carbohydrates, even if they were not packed with nutrients. He was limiting himself to two a night that way it would last until the visit coming up on Friday. Hopefully, though he hated to depend on them, there would be more cookies forth coming.

Predictably a shadow fell over his tray and Wufei casually got up and moved leaving the tray. No words were uttered really and T was obviously irritated. It was interesting that the lack of reaction seemed to goad the man further. He had no way to react to passive acceptance. Wufei liked that. Internally he tallied a point for himself on a mental checklist. He won this battle. Even as T's lackeys were chuckling at his departure, the tension in T's stance and the glare he was sending at Wufei's back had an obvious meaning.

He knew Wufei won that battle as well.

Day 8

Wufei walked into the fully tiled shower room and started stripping down slowly. He had just come from lunch where once again T completed his usual food intimidation tactics that he had consistently been doing every meal. Now it was Wufei's free time while everyone else worked and he was going to take it relaxing in the hot spray of the empty shower facilities.

Walking around the half wall tiled barrier to the shower area, Wufei quickly set the shower on high and hot letting the spray blast over him, washing away tension and aggravation. He closed his eyes and leaned into the tiles.

An annoying squeak started echoing through the shower halls, it was of an under-greased wheel. He chose to ignore it until the footsteps started getting louder with each step. There was a pause, so the owner was at the door. The footsteps started again without the wheel noise added and Wufei felt the man's presence coming closer.

He pushed his hair slick back against his scalp and glanced over to see who it was.

An inmate. Brown hair single tattoo on lower arm. Wufei had never bothered with the man; he didn't seem to be of much importance within the hierarchy of the cell block and mainly seemed to attempt to stay under the radar. That didn't mean he wasn't a threat, after all Wufei was the smallest person in the cell block and the man had to have at least eight inches on him. Wufei turned back to his shower washing himself under the spray with the dispenser soap.

"Hey there." Wufei ignored the man's call and started rinsing off, "You're very pretty you know that?"

Wufei chose not to answer. "Hey, I'm talking to you." A hand grabbed Wufei's elbow. He reacted instantly driving it back into the man's gut.

"Touch me again and see what happens." He threatened. He turned back remembering his promise to himself. He would not get involved in the jails politics. He would not get involved with these mongrels; he would keep his dignity, his pride.

"Feisty, huh?" The man chuckled and snarled at the same time. "That's fine by me. T obviously hasn't gotten to you. I'll just have to break you in myself." The man lunged forward, pinning Wufei naked against the wall under the shower. Wufei forced his knee up and shoved off the wall ramming the man into the half wall barrier. The force broke the man's grip and Wufei turned out of the hold, hooked the man's legs and punched him in the jaw.

Instantly the man fell back, cracked his head on the wall and went limp. Blood was starting to pool and slowly spiral down the drain.

Wufei turned quickly away from the man lying in a heap at his feet; shutting the water off. He stepped over the man's limp form and grabbed his towel from the dry area wrapping it around his waist. Exiting he found the closest guard in the facility watching over the rest of the cleaning crew and stated, "An inmate slipped in the shower. He needs medical attention."

The other inmates around the common area cleaning looked up in interest at his statement. Wufei turned away heading towards his cell as the guard rushed off calling into his communicator for assistance. Wufei knew what the man was going to find had all the indicators of foul play. No one slips that badly in shoes and ends up with a bloody skull on one side and a fist shaped indent on their cheek.

Wufei just shook his head and started getting dressed again. There was no reason to worry about it. If they were going to blame him they would blame him eventually after an 'investigation'. No inmates saw him do it or knew the man's condition yet, so his reputation, or lack of one, would still be intact. There was no way to connect the dots and that was all there was to it.

Wufei started to head towards the library. He didn't have to start work for another half an hour, but he needed to get some meditation in. As much as he hated this place, as much as he didn't want to be involved, as much as he didn't want to associate with these low-lives, he had attacked an inmate. Sure it was out of defense and no one else had seen it; that wasn't the problem.

The problem was that he felt truly in control, for that short stint, he felt powerful, deadly, that everything was right.

And that was dangerous.

Day 9

Never, never, never, NEVER underestimate other's abilities of gathering intelligence. Even in a situation such as a tightly secured prison with several opposing sects that normally would not be within a mile of each other if they could help it. Wufei failed that. By dinner the day before only one or two prisoners must have known that an inmate was entered into the hospital ward with a bloody head and a fist print on his cheek. And a maximum of three prisoners knew that Wufei had reported someone 'slipping' in the shower.

This morning at breakfast, everyone knew. Everyone knew and it was back to day one, but was worse. Each prisoner was staring at him and whispering among their fellow inmates. It followed Wufei everywhere and he could feel himself tensing and coiling and wishing for it to be after lunch, to be alone in the library.

The situation was worse, because now they all knew he could take on someone that had at least a foot in height against him and come out on top. What they didn't know was whether the man had 'his way' with Wufei first or how well Wufei actually fought or even if Wufei was the aggressor or not. It didn't matter that he walked out of the showers with no visible damage to him what so ever, they like to speculate and it had him on edge.

Apparently the man was still unconscious. Either that or not talking.

The issue was that they were interested and it caused them to start attempting to goad him into reacting. To the point where they were actively approaching him and doing more than cat calling. And Wufei had yet to react.

Earlier an inmate in his cell block tried tripping him. Wufei didn't react, just side-stepped the idiot. The guards yelled at them to knock it off. He wanted to rip the man's head from his shoulders. And that had only been the first incident of the morning.

Three more days till Quatre. Just hold out.

Day 10

When waiting for time to pass slowly it is always helpful to stay occupied. That was not happening. Wufei lay on his bed for the night, staring up at the ceiling. He was not getting more food unfortunately and it was starting to become obvious. The cookies would last till the end to the week as long as he did not give in to the urge to eat them. Laying with no distraction did not exactly make the hunger pains any less ignorable.

What was worse than the physical was the mental tests. He had caught himself several times throughout the day briefly wishing one of the other pilots were with him. He was supposed to hate them. He was supposed to never want to be near them again. But he could help it. At least they were familiar and knew when to leave him alone and when to speak.

If Heero were here he would react by threatening everyone and it would stick. Duo would make friends with half the lowlifes in the place, just because he knew the value of an 'ally'. Trowa knew how to comfort him instantly; it was a strange talent that Wufei never had taken for granted. Quatre never belonged here, but at least it would have been a friendly presence.

Wufei was realizing that he needed them. Needed them to the point that it was starting to hurt. And that was killing him.

Quatre was two days away.

Day 11:

T and his pack of mongrels had taken to haunting the library despite the fact that he did not actually read. It was more to get under Wufei's skin. There was actually gathering quite the little crowd of not only T's crew, but various other inmates that were interested in Wufei.

The week was dragging on and all Wufei could think is how to reset himself. How to get by only two weeks into his three months of imprisonment. One more day. That was it. Just one more day.

Day 12

Wufei was alert and standing in front of the bars. He was ready for the lineup; ready to go see Quatre and feel the tension ooze out of him. He had already made up his mind earlier in the week to be courteous as much as possible to avoid the session ending soon. Plus he would be talking with his lawyers and would be that much closer to freedom.

And he only had three cookies left.

The bars slipped open quickly and several names were called out for visitors. Slowly down the list five...six...seven people called.

Wufei was not one of them.

Those seven left for their visitor hours. And Wufei was not going. He didn't know what to feel and his mind was blank as the other prisoners started moving off to begin there morning routines before breakfast.

There had to be a mistake...a simple paper error. Something. Wufei moved through the crowd sitting around to the gate at the other end approaching the guard. He stopped a few feet away so as not to alarm the man, urging, "There has to be a mistake. I am supposed to have a visitor today. I'm supposed to see my lawyers."

The guard frowned at him, but reached for his communication unit any way. "Do we have anything for a prisoner by the name of Wufei Chang?"

-Give us five minutes.-

Wufei frowned at the time he would have to wait, but moved off anyways. The guard would find him, he went to brush his teeth in the bathroom. This made no sense. Quatre said he would come. There must have been an error. Wufei felt his muscles coiling further and tried his best to stay calm. How long was five minutes anyways? This was taking forever.

Eyes of other prisoners were on him as he entered the main bathroom area; they seemed to sense his tension even though Wufei could swear that he was not exposing any outside expression.

Moving back into the common area the guard called him out, "Chang! Let's go!"

He dropped his toiletries quickly onto the top bunk and left. "The warden wants to see you." the guard grinned at him, letting him pass through the corridor double doors. Not what he was expecting at all. He was supposed to be meeting Quatre, not the warden of the prison.

Wufei was taken down the hallway towards the cafeteria and led up a set of stairs just before it. There was another hallway that was shorter and smaller than the one downstairs at the end of it was a set of well-crafted wooden doors. The guard that had been escorting him this far knocked on the door sharply, and a male voice echoed, "Come in."

Wufei was ushered inside and saw the man before him. He was both young and old looking. He had slightly graying hair, but a full head of it. He seemed fit in the arms, but he had a distinctive belly beneath his button up shirt. "Hello Wufei. I am the warden here. My name is Alan Scott." He motioned for Wufei to sit in the seat across from him and for the guard to leave the room.

Alone with a war criminal. He was either very trusting or very confident. Maybe both. He could just be very stupid as well.

Wufei sat across from him not saying anything and not smiling either. Wufei was a little surprised that the man was not more unnerved as he joked, "I know I have two first names. Strange huh?"

Wufei didn't respond. Just waited to find out why the hell he was here.

"I have some bad news for you Wufei." Alan sighed, "I feel that you are here wrongfully and I truly do believe that, but that does not change the fact that you are here and, though we don't know how long, you will be here for a while. Agreed?"

Wufei nodded in acceptance. It was a statement more than anything else. "The reason I called you here is because I've received word that a Mr. Winner will be unavailable to visit today. I understand that your lawyers were supposed to meet you as well. They will not be able to attend. Would you like a public defender instead?"

Wufei was fuming. There would be no visit, there would be no lawyers, and there would be no Quatre or cookies or... He shook his head. It was not often that a public defender was assigned so quickly if the lawyers missed a single meeting.

"Well I'll give you time to think about it. I like you and I would like to keep things civil between us. There's a reason you got that library job so fast. I'm on your side. Okay?"

Wufei didn't move, and Alan shrugged, "Alright, well I guess I'll have you escorted back to you cell block before the first breakfast bell."

Wufei got up automatically to exit the room following the guard stiffly. There would be no contact as promised by Quatre. There would be no lawyers to confirm his innocence. There would be no time away from thugs and murderers. There would be no reprieve.

The coil in his muscles had not relaxed in any way and he could feel it tightening slowly. His fuming had turned to furry slowly and it would not be much longer before it was rage.

They turned the corner of the lower hallway and were ten paces to the doors back into the cell block. He had to calm down he could not give anything away not to these low lives, these criminals. He would keep his sanity and control.

Walking through Wufei stepped five feet out from the doors into the common area, before pausing and noticing the set up. In the center of the room on the ground tier was T sitting on a table smirking and staring right at him. "You've been holding out on me, Wufei." His cronies around him chuckled. Wufei felt a vein in his head throb. Everyone else was watching the exchange from both tier levels.

T stood up and stepped closer drawling, "While you were gone I had a look around your bunk." He leaned in closer, and held up the small package of cookies that he had placed under his pillow during the day for safe keeping. "Look what I found." he taunted.

Wufei saw red, something snapped in him. He back handed the man across the face, slammed his knee into T's gut and brought his elbow down on the back of T's neck as he doubled over in pain. There was a crunch and the body was twitching on the floor.

Another man charged him; Wufei grabbed his arm and kicked the man's torso away, the resounding pop of dislocation was satisfying along with his scream, while shoving him to the ground.

"Anyone else! Does anyone else want to mess with me?" He proclaimed loudly.

Wufei heard the ratcheting of several guns being cocked as every guard had there sidearm trained on him. "On the floor now!"

Wufei did as he was told and felt his arms pulled back and cuffed. He was hauled up and carried out, stunned silence in his wake.

It wasn't long till he was shoved into a square cement box and the door shut behind him, "Solitary! Two months." and the small grated door hatch was slid shut.

Everything was dark.

* * *

TBC…


	6. Chapter 6

Ch 06

* * *

Darkness. Some are scared of it. Some embrace it. Wufei was in neither of these categories. It simply was there surrounding him and he existed in it. Unable to see, unable to be distracted, only to feel in the nothingness.

The first day he raged, slamming his hands against the steel door at the injustice of the situation. Banging echoing in the hall and filling his room. The guards gave up trying to get him to stop by pounding back. How could this have happened? T deserved it. And he was not supposed to be rotting in jail. How could the others not come? How could Quatre blatantly lie the previous week and even withdraw his support through lawyers?

Oh yes, Wufei had been furious the first day and it lasted for the entire first week. Wufei's hands hadn't hurt that much since the first week of his training so long ago. Then at the end of the first week the guards had said that no, Wufei had not had any visitors that week again.

Wufei closed in on himself then. When someone came to deliver food, if they looked inside, they would see him huddled in the corner. No intentions of moving and not really acknowledging the arrival of food or the room or reality or the darkness.

In fact Wufei stopped eating that week from depression and no longer caring what would happen. Because Wufei was crushed mentally. No matter how mad he had been before, there had always been that little hope inside that no the pilots didn't actually turn him in because 'they thought it was right', but because there was a master plan or they needed him on the inside or...something.

But in fact they didn't need him. He was here to rot. And there was no way they were ever coming for him.

By the third week, Wufei had started eating again. More because his body demanded it then anything. Plus it was not very honorable to commit suicide even if it was slowly by hunger strike. It was something that Wufei couldn't stamp out of his personality. His ideas and morals were too far ingrained in him to change. After eating he would return to his corner and stay that way. The guard came once again to let him know he had no visitors. Wufei no longer waited for the guard to give him the news. He knew there would be no one.

He was numb. Through and through. His mind shut down and his body was on autopilot. There was nothing for him to do, but stay limp.

The fourth week not much had changed. He had been in the black cell for a month. No visits had been reported. Wufei stopped thinking about the past entirely. He had decided to disown it, abandon it like life had abandoned him. It was at the end of this week that something changed.

His mind was still blank and his body was still on autopilot, eating when it was hungry. What changed was that to pass the time, he started doing pushups and situps again. Another instinct trained into him. Maintain fitness. Eat sleep. Maintain fitness.

It caused him to reawaken. He had something to focus on, because his past was empty, all he had left was the future.

By week five he was finally starting to think of what he was going to do once he was out of solitary. He needed to get out of jail, but he would settle for short term plans as well. His strategy of being cool and aloof had failed him. It put too much pressure on him to maintain constantly.

Perhaps it was time for him to embrace the inner violence. It felt wonderful to give in; felt it during the fight with T. And undoubtedly he always had it under the surface simmering. Often it would be contained not unleashed. That is what he had been trained to do his entire life. Contain. Do not give up control for a second.

But he was starting to think that was all wrong.

Week six Wufei had decided to react to other prisoners if he had too, possibly even if he didn't. He still wanted to be on good terms with the warden, but that did not necessarily mean he couldn't play by the other inmates games. He would have to put kiddy gloves on of course, but...

Finally he could feel it. Peace of mind. Emptiness that wasn't from numbness or attempting to block his thoughts. He had come to a decision and all he could feel was peace. A peace he had never quite felt before. And the darkness wasn't simply there anymore. The extended time existing in the darkness gave it life gave it compassion and a feeling of home. A feeling that Wufei embraced.

He had decided to give in. Give in to nature and its desire to tear things apart at the seams. He would flow through events like water and if something was to arise that stood in his way, he would destroy it.

No more was he watching out for the weak among them. No longer would he concern himself with the innocent or sinful, moral or immoral, honorable or dishonorable.

Everything would be on his rules. If it benefited him he would do it, regardless of the consequences.

Week seven was simple to traverse. The darkness was his comfort. The fitness kept him focused. His plans gave him conviction. And the waiting fed his rage.

Finally, there was a knock at the door. He shielded his eyes from the light. Looking up slowly he saw the guard, holding his sidearm at the ready looking cautious. They hadn't seen him for two months, only the empty tray of food as a signal that he was still alive.

Wufei stood and approached the door. He was ready to leave the darkness. It had given him clarity, now it was time to instill the principle he was going to live by. Only live for himself.

* * *

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Ch 07

* * *

Wufei stepped through the cell door and two guards were waiting. There was a sharp pinch of metal and a click as handcuffs were locked around his wrists immediately. Apparently they thought he was hostile. The guards turned and began escorting him back towards his cell block. Wufei was in no rush and walked slowly, stretching his under used legs from the last two months in solitary. They stopped him outside the double doors of his cell block and told him, "Your new cell assignment is on the second tier cell number seventy six." The guard then pressed the button that opened the doors and Wufei stepped through the first of the two doors.

"What time is it?" He asked quickly. There had been no true time for him at the end of all the darkness. He was able to keep track of the days, but not the hours.

"It's just after morning call. Breakfast in forty-two minutes." The guard replied unlocking his cuffs. He stepped out and shut the door behind Wufei.

The door in front of him opened and he stepped out into the cell block. He started heading towards the second set of stairs to lead to the top level. At first only the people closest to him were quiet and watching him. Then it slowly spread throughout the block.

Someone started clapping off to the right. Wufei was surprised as more inmates began to join in and the clapping grew to yelling and hollering till it echoed off the cement walls and the steel bars. Apparently Wufei was some kind of a hero. A strange turn of events. He simply shrugged it off. Right now he did not want to be a hero. Simply serve out the last three weeks before his trial and then he'd be free.

"QUIET DOWN." Echoed over the loud speaker and the crowd began to calm down and continue on their daily routine as Wufei moved up the stairs to the top tier.

Finding his cell was not that difficult. Just slightly past the half-way point on the right side, he entered the room and noticed the top bunk already had bedding and clothes on it. Apparently he now had a roommate. Whatever trial period the guards had been waiting for was over.

The first thing that Wufei decided to do was take a shower. Through the entire war of piloting Nataku he had never been this dirty. Two months of darkness and no shower within the holding cell left Wufei covered in grit and grime that he wanted to, quite literally, scratch off.

Heading to the shower room was easy enough. The other prisoners seemed to be giving him a wide berth. Whether it was out of fear or respect Wufei didn't know. Nor did he care at least they were finally leaving him in peace without whispering as he walked by. Maybe afterwards they did, but not while he was in transit.

Upon entering the restroom area he looked in the mirror and cringed slightly. The dirt covering his skin was thick and caused him to look ashen. His hair was greasy and a mess. He'd have to grab a rubber band when he went to the library today. Surprisingly, despite the once daily meals, he was not entirely too thin. In fact he seemed to have put on muscle during his stay in solitary. He had been getting more food in there then he had while he was in general population.

Wufei looked away and stepped into the shower room. There weren't any comments on being potential jail bait to him, which he appreciated. Apparently he should have acted on his feelings much earlier, and then they would have left him the fuck alone without the stay in solitary. He wouldn't have had the convictions he currently had, but still...

The hot shower was such a relief and he spent the entire time scratching off the dirt and washing his hair as thoroughly as possible.

An inmate called across the room at him, "Five minutes till breakfast" before leaving. Wufei frowned and shut the water off. They were actually being helpful. It made no sense. To go from the most antagonized person in the facility to the most respected? What kind of logic was that?

He exited the tiled shower room and headed back to his bunk where there was a clean set of prison standard uniforms waiting for him. His bunk mate was still not there; he must have slipped off to breakfast already.

Shrugging his tank top over his head he noticed it stretched a little more than usual. Maybe he had gained more muscle then he initially thought. He left quickly following the crowd out into the hall towards the cafeteria.

There was an unusual buzz within the prison members in the cafeteria. Apparently there had been some messengers already spreading the news of his release. Wufei allowed the frown of disgust cross his face freely. Two people near him back up a couple of feet. He stepped forward into the line ignoring the strange behavior, to grab his food.

Breakfast in hand he turned and sat at an empty table like he had previously. Everyone was watching him openly. They apparently were slightly bolder then the group of men in his cell block. Either that or they were just as doubtful of his capabilities and simply didn't see the damage that Wufei could do in a couple of seconds.

The seats next to him were slowly being filled, instead of being treated like a person carrying the plague his cell mates were purposefully sitting near him. They still gave him a rather wide berth of a seat and a half, but they were sitting at his table, while there were still seats open elsewhere.

Wufei noticed that eyes still remained on him, but he ignored it. He wasn't interested in friends or enemies at that point. He had three weeks till his trial. That was his main concern right now. Nothing else. Not the people, nor the cell walls, nor the outside world. Just himself.

Out in the courtyard for exercise hour, not much was different. He stayed off on one side as the other inmates were playing basketball or lifting weights. He was reveling at the feeling of grass beneath him and fresh air around him. He always appreciated nature and earth, especially coming from the colonies…but now…It was glorious.

Still. He needed to focus. He had no contact with Quatre or his lawyers. He had declined a public defender and his military hearing was in three weeks. In fact… he had heard no news on his trial, which seemed strange. He needed to talk to the warden is what he needed. Alan.

As much as he hated depending on other people, he knew when he needed and being a prisoner had a limiting factor on his capabilities to get what he needed.

Lunch hour wasn't much different from breakfast. Someone from another cell block made a comment towards him, but was immediately punched in the face by a large man that had originally been in T's group. Wufei truly didn't understand that. He didn't let it concern him. That man was not his friend. No one was his friend. Everyone was evil; these men simply had indulged that side of them more.

Leaving from lunch he paused next to a guard and stated, "I need to speak to the warden about my trial." The guard nodded in an indication that he would probably speak to him and then motioned for him to move on. He had a break, while everyone else would be working for the first hour. Wufei decided to spend it in the shower again.

Heading back to his cell he noted that he still had not met his roommate. He was probably avoiding him; the question was why though. Wufei had never noted who was in the cells specifically. If the man had not been read as a threat before, he probably hadn't bothered to note their exact location in the cell block.

Grabbing his towel again he headed to the shower to relax. As good as the shower felt this morning, it felt even better now. He was able to take his time and actually reach below the grime level and scald fresh skin on the hot water. His hair was still lacking a hair tie, which was mildly irritating when he finally got out of the shower. A guard was waiting in the middle of the cell block to escort him to his job in the library.

Once there he started exercising for the first hour, but then stopped…he had a sinking feeling inside that something was going to go wrong. Going around the books he paused in front of the large law section…. Wufei had been a scholar once, and it was probably time to start again. He was going to do the best that he could. So Wufei sat unloading all the law section in front of him. Specifically the military law section. The books were old; especially since this was the now a military trial in the ESUN courts, but what was in the books was still most likely applicable to the court.

He was undisturbed for the entire work period before he was shuffled back to his cell block. He decided to go to his cell and leave the rest of the inmates to their…socializing amongst each other.

Wufei was alone in his bunk when the call for line up before lights out echoed over the speakers. He got up and went to the walkway out in front of his cell looking over the jail from his new vantage point. He was now in the middle of cell block and on the second of two floors. Strategically it was an excellent location for observation. People were moving slowly towards their cells. Wufei still had yet to meet his new cell-mate. Either the man was skittish because of Wufei's actions before or simply busy.

There was a younger thinly built man approaching him down the tier. Man was kind of the wrong term for him as he appeared to be sort of young. Wufei guessed less than twenty five. Older then nineteen though. Then again Wufei himself was only sixteen as he was definitely the youngest person in the jail. He should have been in a juvenile detention facility except that they tried him as an adult because it was considered war crimes. They judged him in control of his actions.

The man had stopped standing next to him in front of the same cell. He was about as tall as Trowa, so taller than Wufei by a bit. He didn't look at Wufei at all, didn't try to initiate verbal or visual contact. He was standing about a foot away actually. Very standoffish. That was fine. It wasn't like he was here to make friends. He would be out of here in three weeks as it was.

-Alright, everybody in.- Echoed into over the PA system again. The boy…man…whatever next to him turned and entered first, very quickly. Moving towards the back of the cell towards the sink area. Wufei entered in slower, trying to figure out if this behavior might be a threat to him in some way. The cell doors clanged shut behind him for the night. His cell mate still had not turned away from the wall. Wufei was choosing to ignore him at this point. It was time for bed. He would have to change his routine again if he could no longer do pushups in his cell.

-Lights out- The cells went dark, except for some fluorescent emergency lights out in the main halls.

Wufei decided to stay in his prison uniform for the night. Just the pants and the shirt, which wasn't too bad as far as comfortable sleeping close. He still did not know about this person and quite frankly he didn't want to get to know him.

Wufei lay down on his bed for the night in the lower bunk. It squealed in protest. Very old with actual springs apparently. He did not think he would be sleeping that much tonight, but resting was a priority. After he settled into his bed, he noticed that the guy turned around and it looked like he was tense and a little high strung from his posture, he couldn't see his face.

Wufei was recalling every way to possibly defend himself in case the man attacked him. Wufei didn't think he had offended him in any way. He had seen the guy's face throughout the population and actually mingling in some of the other cell block populations in the yard.

Wufei watched as the man relaxed slowly and actually stepped towards the bed. He whispered, almost disbelieving, "That's it?"

Wufei leaned out to look the man in the face raising an eyebrow at him, but refusing to speak. The man looked away before looking back, "I thought maybe… because you took out T, you would be... stepping in to take his place completely."

Wufei leaned back not bothering to answer that suggestion. As much as he was all for himself he would not be taking anyone by force. Let alone his cell mate. Obviously T was not of the same morals.

The old Wufei would have thought about the injustice of this world, to be raped. The penalties that people should pay, but this Wufei rolled over onto his back and stared at the springs above him and the striped mattress above it. It was not his problem. This person was not his problem.

The guy moved again and propelled himself up to the top bunk. Wufei watched the springs stretch slightly and listen to the squeal as they dipped. Wufei waited for the even breathing of sleep from his cellmate, but it wasn't coming. In fact it seemed as if he was holding his breath.

Finally there was a sharp exhale and a whisper of "Thank you." Wufei paused his thoughts…Thank you? What did he do to deserve a thank you. He hadn't even talked to the guy. He hadn't made a move on him. Maybe that was why…

"Thank you for killing T."

Huh. That was the first time he had been thanked for killing someone. He had been thanked for his 'services' during the war. The peaceful government acknowledging his actions without referring to the actual events that he caused and the death toll that he raised. But now he was actually thanked for something he truly did. And though it was for killing someone…It felt both like a strong confirmation towards his recent give into emotions and slightly….liberating.

He should have given in long ago.

* * *

TBC...


	8. Chapter 8

Ch 08

* * *

The echoing snuffling of people just waking up was bouncing softly through the concrete prison around him along with the squeaking distress of bed springs shifting. Wufei stretched quietly in his bed. His bunk mate had yet to wake up, from his near comatose state. In fact after the short wait for him to go to sleep the previous night he had not woken up or even moved much really. At least he didn't snore.

Wufei had barely slept. It was nerve wracking to sleep in the same room as someone you did not know who could step down slide their hands around your throat and suffocate you slowly without much of a struggle. It had taken Wufei months to get comfortable with the Gundam pilots. How long would it take now? Perhaps he did need to get to know this person better; it would make his time in the prison easier to deal with if he could sleep at night. But… he was better off alone wasn't he?

Wufei shut his eyes to rest them. He really hadn't slept that night. This was really not the best start to have when entering into gen-pop again. He had helped to imprison a lot of these men. Even if they did not recognize him.

The faint buzzing sound of the fluorescent lights beginning to illuminate signaled there was ten minutes till the start of their morning. Two weeks and six days.

The bunk above him shifted. And the springs squeaked, Wufei's eyes snapped open. He saw legs dangling down over the edge of the top bunk and with a little push off the guy landed lightly if a little clumsily on the cement floor next to the bunks. He turned around and looked down at Wufei staring up at him. Then cursed "Damn it. I'm sorry. I was hoping not to wake you."

Wufei shrugged and closed his eyes slightly. He was still able to watch him through his lashes, but it was still nice to relax a little longer. "I'm Trent, by the way." He moved to the back of the cell to relieve himself.

Wufei ignored the pleasantries. He still had not decided whether or not to get to know his bunk mate. It could cause a potential bond which was a definite con as far as he was concerned, but it could allow him to sleep at night.

The con outweighed the pro at this point. By a lot.

The bars slid open on the cells. It was morning wake up, an hour until breakfast. Trent wandered out of the cell to do whatever his morning routine was. Wufei kept his eyes closed resting. He did not know what entirely his routine was going to be. In fact all he could think about was his court date, his lack of representation and being the only one he could depend on.

He felt an hour tick by and got up; the cell mates were already leaving the facilities. It was an out of body experience to be wandering in and out of the cells and the cold cement hallways. He was there, but he wasn't focusing at all on his surroundings. He felt no threat eminently and therefore left the rest of the jail mates alone.

Days were spent in the library with law books skimming endless pages that were filled with ancient laws that were somewhat useless considering they were written well before the ESUN was established. All he could concentrate on was putting together a case, which was taxing and stressful. He could feel his anger coiling, he had no outlet.

Nothing to focus on. Exercise outside the cell was out of the question, as was exercise in the cell with Trent.

Plus the warden appeared to be constantly unavailable, a barrier he had not expected since the warden had stated that he was on his side. There were no phone calls allowed to make it possible to contact Quatre, though Wufei had not decided whether or not he actually would have called.

And the endless jabbering attempts at conversation that Trent made were sending needles into his brain. It was like he was on a mission to befriend Wufei, his own personal demon living with him in his cell. He had yet to give in and answer anything with more than one word answers. This morning he made an exception.

"Go away."

Trent seemed to have been extremely startled to have had Wufei actually talk. He did not say anything else before escaping out the cell doors. He had one week left. One week.

Wufei swung his legs over the edge of the bunks steel frame, his feet hitting the floor. He dropped his head into his hands and stayed bent over. The frustration at seeing his chance at freedom slip through his fingers was…

Wufei heard footsteps echoing down the hall towards his cell, so he stood up moving all emotion off his face. A guard stopped in front of his cell, gun was held at the ready, but it seemed non-threatening at the moment. "The warden can see you now."

Wufei did not feel relief wash over him; he was slow to rise and follow out. The guard waited as Wufei put on his pants and shirt before exiting the cell. He was escorted by three armed guards to the warden's office. Instead of having them wait and be stationed outside like their last meeting he kept them just inside the door, behind Wufei. His skin was crawling and the sinking sensation from the last two weeks in his stomach was amplified.

Alan was sitting behind his desk, looking sullen, "I hear you have wanted a meeting with me. I'm sorry I have not been available before now."

"It's about my case." Wufei ground out.

"I assumed as much." He sighed and flipped open a file on his desk. "Your date is a week from now is it not?" Wufei nodded. "I've been looking into this. I have not been able to contact Quatre Winner. He was the one that was going to be providing your defense, true?" Wufei nodded and looked around the office. Books, medals and ornaments on wooden bookshelves.

"I have contacted a public defender for you." Wufei met Alan's eyes after that. "He has decided that there is no actual time to put a case together for you. He is going to talk to the judge to attempt to get the trial date postponed until you can put together a case."

Wufei nodded. He doubted there would be time; he had gotten through only two of the volumes in the library out of the thirty seven that were there. It was logical.

Didn't mean he wasn't pissed off about it.

"When will it be?"

"There is no date set yet, Wufei. I'll let you know as soon as I hear something." He looked mildly regretful. Almost as if it was his fault. "You can go to the cafeteria now."

Wufei nodded and left, guards flanking him swiftly. He didn't bother grabbing a tray, just sat at a table by himself.

No one approached him or sat next to him like they had been doing all week. He sat stewing.

He was not going to be getting out in a week. It was very doubtful he would be getting out at all in the next month… and it could take longer than that. He knew that better than anyone out there. The courts were backed up with war criminals and profiteers from the just the recent war or incident as they called it. The likely-hood of giving someone who was already in jail a trial before they finished several trials where true criminals were out walking the streets was a ridiculous notion. It just did not happen normally.

Wufei felt his chest tighten. And his spine strained under the stress he had been through vertebrae by vertebrae. He felt like he was going to break again and he didn't like it. No one came near him today or sat at his table. But he felt the eyes of one person on him, Trent.

The yard was alive with the usual banging and abusing of the weight racks and the arguments of prisoners from all the cell blocks. Wufei watched the on goings without much interest. He already analyzed most of where the alliances were though the development of him as one of the head members recently was an interesting one. No one bothered him as he sat at the far edges of the yard. Only two guards could see him at any given point and that was if they looked away from the main pack and actually stared down the wall they were on.

Wufei looked at the walls. They would be easy enough to scale with the brick pattern; the problem would be time

and what to do once you were at the top ridge of the yard. It was at a central location in the prison so the other housing barracks were surrounding as was the larger much more ominous wall beyond that enclosed the prison. Then there would also be the other guards to deal with. It wasn't like he hadn't dispatched people in hand to hand combat, but they had the authority to kill if deemed necessary.

Wufei frowned at his thoughts. They were not useful to him at this time. He did not need escape fantasies to add to his list of issues. The meeting with the warden had been discouraging at best. Six days. Then he was positive that there would be nothing for him, but to rot within the prison walls. Alone.

He looked up and saw Trent coming towards him from across and to the left side of the yard. There was no mistaking it he was actually coming over to talk to Wufei...but he was coming from the area of the yard that belonged to the Clealis group. Which was strange since Marcus Clealis was in a different cell block then their own.

Marcus Clealis, happened to be one of the head suppliers to the White Fang faction. He was the ring leader of war profiteers that had been trying to conquer space's gun running market. Wufei had a hand in his arrest. Marcus had watched him since the day that Wufei entered the prison.

Trent walked right over to Wufei and stood leaning against the wall two feet away from him. He then decided to sit and collapsed down gracelessly next to Wufei. The kid was harmless. Wufei internally scoffed at calling Trent a kid. He was sixteen and in the highest level security prison possible next to this twenty some year old errand boy as far as he could tell.

What was he doing in a high security prison anyhow? Trent inched a little closer to him, but stopped about a foot away, when he realized that Wufei was tensing slightly. "You know it's not that bad once you get used to it. Being in here."

Wufei rolled his eyes and put out "Says the man who was raped repeatedly at night by his cell mate."

Trent tensed and shook his head. "Do you always have to be so spiny?" He glanced over at Wufei.

"Do you have to be so annoying?" Wufei growled out. Then he stopped. It reminded him too much of an exchange he and Duo had once. A long time ago. It was best to be forgotten. He wasn't supposed to be forming bonds. He was supposed to be focusing on how to get out. What he would do after...He had no idea.

The pressure was crushing him again. This wasn't what he had planned for. He was supposed to be ensuring peace by helping the Preventers against those who would try to squander it. But no, instead he was locked away by his friends and the very organization he had been trying to support.

Wufei got up again and wandered towards the gate to the yard. There was less than two minutes to go for yard time.

He could tell. "I'm just trying to help you out!" Trent yelled after him.

Wufei ignored the pesky cell mate. He wouldn't know how to help if someone gave him an instruction manual.

Three days later Wufei's skin was the only thing holding him together and he was itching to crawl out of it. There was no relief that he could see coming to him in the next few days. His public defender had met with him once, he seemed to know what he was doing so competent, but he was not a man who instilled confidence. He was meek and quiet and seemed to have succumbed to the idea that Wufei would not be seeing outside the walls of the prison any time soon.

Wufei was stressed out and not sleeping or functioning correctly. The solid plan would be to accept what was happening and try set up a defense for future unknown trial dates, but Wufei did not want to face the potential acceptance. If he accepted the issue then that was it. There was no fight left to fight. His drive would shut down quickly and he would waste away in the prison blocks…

That he was unwilling to do.

"You decide to start talking to me yet?" Trent spoke up. He was lying on the top bunk as usual it was close to lights out. Wufei had been ignoring his usual antics stoically without making any commentary. He hadn't even bothered to answer back most of the time.

"Wufei…?" Apparently Trent was not getting the hint. "Wufeeeeeei" He droned out.

It worked once before; why not unleash the wild side a little. "What?" Wufei hissed out. "What could you possibly want that is so important as to need to talk to me? You never needed to talk to me before I was your cellmate, why the hell would you need to confide in me now?"

Trent rolled onto his side and leaned over the edge of the top bunk to look at Wufei, "It's nothing really I just thought…you know that…"

"That what? We could be best friends forever and ever? In case you haven't noticed I have been trying to get out of here since the minute I entered this place. I do not need friends. I need to focus on this Friday to see when I can possibly get a chance to rejoin normal society. I'm not here to hang out. So what Trent, what do you want?" Wufei sent the hardest glare he could muster at the face hovering above him.

Trent rolled over and was silent for the rest of the evening.

Wufei's presence was not required at the trial. News came out to him at breakfast and he sat silently after being called to the warden's office among the inmates not bothering to eat. They were sitting around him though, accepting his need for space, not trying to antagonize at all.

The noise and the hustle of the cafeteria was not comforting at all, it just was. Moving into yard time, Wufei strolled to his usual spot in the grass and sat with his back against the wall. He slipped off his shoes and placed his feet in the grass, before leaning his head back and staring at the blue sky beyond the wall.

Trent wandered over and sat next to him not saying anything for once. He just sat there and took in Wufei's silence and responded in kind. He made no attempt to converse at all actually and that was slightly comforting and familiar. Very Trowa or Heero like. Wufei frowned at his thoughts. They were useless now, his old friends and his new observations.

When yard time ended, Wufei accepted the hand that Trent presented to help him up. He moved off to his work period in the library after another silent lunch with no food. He hadn't wanted it that morning and he hadn't wanted it at lunch. In the library he did not know what to do. The law books held no interest to him and the rest of the library held no interest either. It was hollow and useless.

Wufei returned to his cell and sat against the wall facing his bed for the entirety of the last remaining period in the day. He did not move to lie down and try to sleep, just waited for the final lineup before lights out. It came soon enough and he and Trent stood out on the hallway then walked into their cells ready to go to bed for the night.

Wufei stood facing the bed and couldn't move towards it. Trent paused, noticing his lack of movement. "…you okay?"

He shook his head and made no move to head towards the bed. He was a sixteen year old ex-terrorist who was afraid to go to bed.

What a cosmic fucking joke.

Trent came and leaned on the wall next to him. Wufei started talking quietly, "I didn't get out today. They postponed the trial."

"Well that's good at least. The rest of us are stuck in here a lot longer then you will be. We're already sentenced. When is the next trial date?"

"I don't know." Wufei whispered. "The courts claim to be too full at the moment so it is postponed until a 'proper date can be established'."

Trent frowned next to him, "That can't be legal. How are they allowed to do that? That means they can hold you…"

"Indefinitely." Wufei exhaled his worst fear. The laws did not seem to apply here. They had deemed him a threat. The trial would have been very public filled with press covered in the ESUN's best courts. People would want to know what was happening to one of the rebels that lead the world to its current peace.

They were trying to hide him away. Seal him from all existence. He had no friends that would protest for him, He had no family that would wonder where he had gone to. He would simply disappear and be condoned to the cell block he found himself in for the rest of his life.

So he couldn't get into bed.

If he lay down for the night that would be the end of Wufei Chang. He would have no fight left in him. There would be no reason to continue. Eventually the jail inmates would start organizing against him, once they realized who he was. There were a lot of gun runners and war profiteers that had been placed in jail by him over the short stint he worked outside as a Preventer. So he couldn't do it. He couldn't lie down and sleep for the night. He was afraid to.

He was afraid for the first time.

Next to him Trent scooted closer and saw that he didn't respond. So he brought his arms up around Wufei in a loose hug and slowly pressured him to the ground. As the lights went out they didn't move from that spot, sitting against the wall on the cold cement floor with Trent holding Wufei in a loose hug and Wufei staring into space.

* * *

TBC


	9. Chapter 9

Ch 09

* * *

Wufei woke abruptly, in the morning without moving quickly. His joints were stiff and half of his body was freezing and the other half was overly warm. Wake up call had yet to happen according to his internal clock, but it was close.

He lifted his head off...Trent's shoulder? Last night flicked through his head. All day he had been stressed at the decisions in court. Hell, the last three months he had been stressed. Nothing shut down functional systems like emotional stress. He would have liked to pretend that wasn't what caused his apparent narcolepsy to the point he was falling asleep on his cell-mates shoulder, but there had been no way around it. He had banking on yesterday being his last day in prison. He would have gotten out and the other Gundam pilots would have explained what had happened and how he needed to be in jail to protect his life and sorry for not visiting, but we were busy tracking down the insane criminal tracking you. Or something along those lines.

He still had hope yesterday. Despite all his changes and decisions to stay angry and give into instinct and defend himself and to shed all friendships. He still had hope. And it had been brutally crushed in the form of no set date for his future trial, meaning no foreseeable date to get out of this hell hole that was concrete and bars. He had no friends on the outside to get him out. He needed no friends on the inside.

Wufei edged slowly out of his cell mate's half cuddle. Trent had fallen asleep with his arm holding onto Wufei's shoulders. The fact that Wufei was able to fall asleep on someone, while being touched no less, was very strange, but also slightly expected. After his colony blew and he got a break at a safe house he had practically hibernated for a day.

Wufei went to the bars and looked around. The inmates across the platform walkways were still asleep and those he could see in the bottom tier were also following that pattern of sleeping for the approximately twenty minutes left before waking.

Wufei leaned against the bars and tested them flexing hard against the steel. It held in place. Not that he was expecting to be able to bend steel, but still it would be quite an asset for escape if he was able to.

He gave a quick jerk of the bars and there was a slight rattle of displacement, but nothing to really take advantage of. Considering that this was a relatively new prison, built in the last thirty years or so, the walls of the cells were solid concrete and very well made. No real change of tunneling out.

So obviously no escape through the cell. Probably not on his own either. Wufei sighed and moved back away from the edge of the cell as he saw some of the fluorescent lights begin to flicker on. Wakeup would be soon.

He tapped Trent with his foot to wake him and he jumped a little, but was alert very quickly. It spoke of military training or incidents in the past for sure. Which was strange considering that he had never given off the vibe before...

"Wake up." Wufei stated and moved to the back of the cell to use the toilet. Trent nodded sleepily and got up and stretched. Wufei turned around after washing his hands and noticed Trent rubbing his arms to get warm. He had goose bumps on them..."Thank you." He said without looking at Trent. "For... Thank you."

Trent smiled a goofy grinned smile and simply said, "No problem."

* * *

A week had passed and Wufei had settled down a little more into prison life. He stuck with his new motto, 'look out for me only' and started to train every day in the yard. He would go to the far corner like he had been and start running through the motions of his long-ingrained training.

The first day he drew a lot of attention. The prisoners across the yard watched him with open interest as he moved through the actions with his usual grace. Slowed down even he had to admit the pattern looked like a strange dance, but sped up that was a different story; one that could break a man's sternum and crush his ribs inward.

He started the forms two days ago and though there was less attention now it seemed as though the some inmates were still watching. Including Marcus Clealis.

Wufei had been keeping tabs on who were leaders of the jail blocks. Marcus he pegged as the eastern block. Wufei somehow became the undeclared leader of his own cell block, but he did not enforce any action onto the rest of the inmates.

There was an older man in one of the cell blocks that held himself well and the most likely candidate for the North cell block. Wufei did not know him and Wufei had picked Donovan Yakuri as the last leader for the other cell block. He had been involved in human trafficking as Wufei recalled from a brief Preventer's report that Heero had shown him once.

Every man in this retention place had done something to deserve to be in here, but Wufei was starting to see that he would need their assistance in order to get out.

The law wasn't going to help him and he had spent a long time in the past not following the rules of the government of the moment. So it looked as though his only chance was to ignore the law once again.

Wufei riffled through the pages of books he had already read during the duration of his stay here. He had no ideas as to how to escape yet, but a month in and he was already going crazy. Someone walked into the library, Wufei turned from the shelves he was organizing to see who.

Marcus.

He was tall with light brown hair that was starting to gray near his temples. He was about a foot taller than Wufei and he had a rugged look about him. There was a large scar down the side of his neck. "So we meet again, Mr. Chang."

Wufei nodded to him the hair on his neck was starting to stand. The situation screamed leave as quickly as possible. But he couldn't. There was a guard posted outside the library doors though, so perhaps it would be alright.

"Not a big talker I see." He chuckled and pulled a chair from one of the desks. He sat down and relaxed, Wufei tensed a little more. "You weren't a big talker when you arrested me either."

He had been an arms and munitions dealer when Wufei tracked him down a month after the Mariemeia incident, during the short three month stint at the Preventers. Before he had been chucked in here.

"You look so concerned. Please pilot zero-five, come sit down." He smirked and gestured to the seat across from him. Wufei frowned at his use of the pilot designation, but he stayed standing across the room from Marcus. He was letting him know that he recognized him as a Gundam pilot and a former Preventer. This was slightly disconcerting.

"Well, fine then. I suppose your wariness of situations is what kept you alive in the war, inside and outside of prison. I was quite surprised to see you in here when you showed up that first day. My former customer during the war and my arrester after the war."

Wufei spoke up, "The pilots appreciated you as one of our suppliers during the war, but I gave you fair warning after the war and to cease the gun trafficking as it was no longer needed and you failed to do so. It was my job to arrest you."

He nodded, "True. But I suppose you can't teach an old dog a new trick. And I just figured that it was still a lucrative trade considering the rebel factions that have been trying so hard after the war."

"You weren't supposed to assist them in a time of peace." Wufei growled.

"And you sir, are a hypocrite." He laughed at Wufei's bewildered face, "I was your supplier when you and the other Gundam pilots needed weapons. When you were rebels! It was an oppressive peace at times between the month long changes in regimes, but it was peace. And yet you were a key player in the disturbance of that peace. You did not try to arrest me then."

"That wasn't a peace people could live in" Wufei challenged.

"No Chang. That was a peace you could not live in." Marcus stated. "I live where there is discontent. I do not stir up the discontent I simply supply the means for revolution. For the disturbance of a peace where someone cannot live. The most recent one lets the majority live, but those that were discontent needed me to attain their own peace."

Wufei frowned. His logic was excellent. Wufei had been a rebel when he did not agree with the government, but an enforcer when he did.

Marcus shrugged, "Well my old customer that is not what I am here for right now. I've been watching you this last month out of the four you've been here."

"You've been watching me from the beginning, I've noticed." Wufei countered.

Marcus nodded and chuckled, "Yes, you Gundam pilots were always so observant. But I've only been interested in you for the last month. The first three months you had been too hopeful that your government would let you out. Now this last month you've been desperate, watching everything. You are trying to find a way out." There was a gleam in the man's eye. Wufei could not deny the fact that he had been looking for any openings to get out of the facility.

A month of the monotonous in and out, lights on and lights out, food three times a day. It was driving him insane and his skin was crawling with every passing day. His martial arts routine was fine as it reminded him of his past life, but to have inmates watch him was unnerving.

Trent was another annoyance. He was hell bent on being Wufei's friend for reasons unknown. It was irritating, since he had set himself on being friendless for the remainder of all eternity.

Marcus, watched Wufei's face, but Wufei was skilled at not giving anything away. So far the man had failed to provoke much reaction over his most recent revelations.

"Well fine then Chang. You were always the hardest one to read out of the five of you. Let's just say this." He locked eyes with Wufei losing all attempts at relaxed and easy going. This was the war time smuggler. Hard and with motives. "It would be an excellent thing for you to start incorporating my group in the facilitating this escape. I can and I will make life difficult for you in here. Very soon."

Wufei held eye contact determined not to look away. He set his jaw as Marcus got up and approached, "Do we understand each other?"

"I understand what you are saying." Wufei replied calm and collected. It promised nothing.

"Then let me help you out? Yes? Let me have your arm." Wufei hesitated, and then raised his arm. Marcus smirked and grabbed his wrist holding him still and pulled a small plastic shank. It looked like it had been made from a tooth brush. "You have not been to the infirmary yet have you?"

He dragged the hand crafted plastic blade down Wufei's forearm pressing hard. It began bleeding almost immediately. A six inch long gash formed blood seeping out and beginning to drip. "This will assist you in getting there. Perhaps give you more ideas. I will be sending someone in after you soon. Leave in two minutes."

And Marcus turned and left the library, shank once again hidden out of sight. Wufei hadn't even realized he was carrying a weapon initially. It was handy.

Wufei started putting pressure on the cut with his other hand with a cleaning rag meant for the library's use. He waited the allotted two minutes and walked out informing the guard posted that he needed to go to the infirmary.

The guard looked alarmed at the bloody rag, but it was not bleeding that badly. He had flipped the rag over before he walked out to make it look worse than it was. The guard radioed that he was transporting a patient so the library would be closed.

Wufei was quickly escorted to the infirmary. He looked at everything. The large window looked out at the yard, but they had large encased mesh over them. Most of the drugs appeared to be locked away. There should have been scalpels somewhere for potential weapons, but he didn't know where. The doctor took one look at his arm and said a brief "Stitches" then walked away. One of the nurses came over with a kit she pulled from behind a locked cabinet,

"Do I need to handcuff you to do this?" She asked.

Wufei frowned at the question and said "No."

She smiled, "Good. I heard about you. You're the nice one." Wufei raised an eyebrow at her. She blushed a little. "Sorry, we talk about the prisoners. It's just that, you've been here for four months and you haven't had to visit us yet. And the only person you hurt was T and he kind of deserved it...so..."

She looked down and continued working quietly. Wufei thought for a moment. Marcus said he might find an advantage in here. Perhaps..."Well thank you. I don't quite know what I did to belong in here."

"I know!" She exclaimed quietly, "You were a hero. You helped end the war!" She blushed again and fell silent.

Ah. So she knew he was a Gundam pilot and she had a case of hero-worship. But the doctor didn't seem as amused. So perhaps this wouldn't help at all. Maybe Marcus really was an idiot. He looked at the cameras in the room. They were focused on him as he was the only patient there. Two cameras pointing his way.

There was screaming echoing down the hall. Violent yelling really. The nurse looked alarm as she held the suture in her clamp. Wufei looked up. The double doors burst open and two guards were wrestling with a large ripped man who was yelling incoherently.

"LSD overdose we think!" One of the guards shouted out as he caught another elbow to the chest. A superman drug.

The inmate threw the guard off on the right side and reached over to the one on the left.

Wufei watched as the doctor flew to a drawer, withdrew a needle and shot it into the man's leg as soon as the woman had gotten a chance. Brave woman.

The inmate dropped to the floor within seconds. Both of the security cameras were focused on him. One slowly moved back to Wufei now that the action was over. The other remained on the other patient who was being lifted off the floor and handcuffed to the bed to sleep off the drugs.

Wufei marveled as the nurse continued to pull the needle in and out of his skin. An unsecured drawer full of tranquilizers. That was an advantage if he'd ever seen one.

Marcus wasn't an idiot. He just hadn't cracked the puzzle that was this jail.

* * *

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

Ch10

* * *

Wufei walked into the cell block with his left forearm wrapped up and bandaged and heads turned. Wufei's last fight had ended with a man dead and before that another inmate with a bloody head.

What had he done now? It was on everyone's face as he walked through. Who had challenged him, and what happened to the other guy. Wufei ignored it and went straight up the metal stairs to his cell.

Trent of course showed up two minutes later. "What happened to you?" He asked. His green eyes were inquisitively looking at Wufei.

"An epiphany." Wufei threw out.

Trent rolled his eyes and sat across from Wufei's bed on the floor. "No really, what happened to you?"

Wufei didn't bother saying anything; he lay back on his bed. It was a more compromising position, but his instincts weren't firing nearly as hard anymore around Trent. The guy had been harmless. Especially after finding himself curled up on the floor next to the man. Wufei cringed inwardly. He still thought of that moment as his weakest point so far. He let his guard down next to a man he knew next to nothing about. Except that was associated in the yard with Marcus Clealis's group occasionally.

"Why are you in here?"

Trent looked startled at the question. He shrugged and sat across from the lower bunk on the cement floor. He was getting on Wufei's level. He seemed to know that it would put Wufei more at ease since they were both in compromising positions. "I followed my friend."

Wufei frowned at him. "What do you mean?" Trent shrugged and looked out through the bars of their cell; they weren't shut, but he still looked at them as if they were haunting him in some way.

"I don't want to talk about it."

He stated and sat there starring out of the cell till lights out was called. They lined up on the platform outside and then came back in for bed.

It was the first time Trent was silent for a night.

* * *

Time moved slowly and endlessly in the graying walls of the facility that was home to those that had been deemed unsafe to normal society. The hours dragging on by clanging bar gates and calls for lights on and lights out.

Wufei had ventured closer in the yard twice a week to use the weight racks. The first time the other inmates grudgingly moved off the equipment. More to see what he could do then anything.

The surprise and awe at his abilities to squat two fifty had caused a ruckus in the groups. Whether it was mockery because a little pip-squeak like Chang could out lift you or because of a desire to fight him. The inmates had been watching him and his martial dance in the corner of the yard. Three of inmates in his block had expressed interest in learning. Including Trent.

While he wasn't the most excited about possibly training others it would be a way to stay motivated and keep boredom at bay. So perhaps it was a good idea.

Wufei was quickly learning that boredom would be his number one enemy in this place. Boredom caused laziness. Laziness caused complacency. And that would lead to losing your edge and in a place such as this losing an advantage was not without consequences.

There had been multiple fights in his cell block. While no one challenged him since T. They were leaderless. Some had tried to take that spot. Most failed. Bloodily.

He was losing focus again.

So using the weights was allowing him to drastically tone up and define his physique more then he imagined he would. He was definitely adding muscle since he had to move up a size in the prison uniform. He would stop soon, too bulky and he would lose his speed and flexibility. What was the point in that? There was none except to get yourself killed.

Wufei sighed and stared at the cement wall in front of him. He couldn't seem to concentrate on anything today.

Another month had flown by; he had started to carve lines in the walls next to his bed. Five long months. No word from his public defender or anyone else. "Lights out!"

Wufei got up and walked to the walkway where Trent joined him. Another day passing.

They walked back into their cell and Wufei stretched before going into his bunk below. Trent squatted down next to him and Wufei glanced over, slightly bewildered to see Trent's face so close to his. He narrowed his eyes as the fluorescent lights went out.

Trent licked his lips and whispered, "Look Wufei, I'm getting concerned for you. Marcus wants results and you've given him nothing." He glanced out of the bars as if worried someone was eaves dropping. It was unlikely as mainly it was the groaning of mattresses as everyone slowly went to sleep. "He doesn't like that kind of behavior. If he gives you an order, he expects it to be followed."

"Why tell me this? Did he tell you to?" Wufei growled, "I've seen you hang out in his corner of the yard. How come you are not in his cell block?"

Trent sighed and whispered sharply, "I'm telling you this because I care about you. You've been a good friend and cell mate and I don't want to risk ending up with someone like T again if you end up six feet under. More like twelve."

Wufei looked at Trent's face and accepted what he said. He was surprisingly honest for a criminal. "Thank you. I will take your warning into consideration."

Trent nodded and hesitated before standing and hoisting himself into his bed. Wufei relaxed as the springs above him settled. He had been watching since his lack of trial occurred two months ago. He had been. Hard.

The tranques were and excellent possibility and he had mapped out most of the channels to and from his cell block in his head. He knew how to get to the warden's office and back, how many key codes he needed and didn't have access to. He knew of the double doors that the guards escorted them through leading to the jail blocks and that he needed to get into the control room to the left of it to let anyone out. He knew that there were eleven guards at all times in the cafeteria and three covering his block.

The problems were in that he did not know the other cell blocks. He did not know where the maintenance rooms were. Anything in the yard was useless with the guards patrolling with stun guns. The other jail mates' fighting or stealth abilities were unknown as well.

There were countless unknowns and he had no way of determining them because he was stuck in the cell block without a network. Without the man power needed to organize a break out. He needed to fill in the blanks. He needed to organize his block.

It looked as though the cell block would become his after all.

Wufei was already awake the next morning stretching on the floor when Trent hopped down from the bed above. He was stumbling towards the toilet when Wufei spoke, "I need you to organize a meeting with Marcus in the yard today. Unobtrusively."

Trent's eyebrows rose but he nodded and continued on his way doing his business. When the doors clang open, Wufei went and stood out on the platform outside his cell observing the layout and the prisoners. There were subtle looks up towards him.

This was the first time Wufei had taken a blatant interest in the ongoing of his cell block The Western cell block. Normally he would tuck himself away in his cell or go about his day with disinterest, but today he was clearly looking to do something.

Wufei watched as inmates went to the bathroom and the showers and waited. Until... there. A tall blonde man had left his lower left cell close to the entrance of the block and went to the shower room.

Wufei walked quickly and smoothly carrying his towel weaving between the other prisoners. He entered the steaming tiled room to see the three people in the shower room including the tall blonde one. Ulviric. He had expressed interest in learning Wufei's 'strange movements' as he had called them. "Everyone out." Wufei called.

Each person looked up and moved out, when Ulviric moved to go Wufei shook his head. He came closer and started the spray of the shower next to Ulviric and stripped down on the pretenses of taking a shower. The spray would mask any of their conversation. "Why are you in this prison?"

"I vas an assassin." His accent was thick. Sounded very Eastern European or from a heavy populated Russian colony at Lagrange 3 district. "Many of zee Romafellar and zhe ESUN heve fallen from me." Wufei looked him up and down; he was well built sinewy muscle. Tall about six five, six six.

"You asked to learn martial arts from me. Are you still interested?" The man nodded. Wufei glanced over his shoulder and looked back at the man in front of him. "Do you want to leave this place?"

"Zee shower?"

"No. The prison."

The light of yearning in the man's eyes was unmistakable. He wanted out. And he wanted out now.

* * *

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

Ch11

* * *

Wufei was heading through the main gate of the yard when a bump came from the man on his right. Wufei knew it was Marcus before the man had run into him and he looked mildly irritated. Good. Wufei was currently the man with the plan. That was how it was going to stay. "Care to spot me on the bench press today?" Wufei pried.

Marcus, knowing that he would have to comply in order to understand what was going to happen, nodded curtly. He waved to two men in his block that went ahead and claimed the weight bench. "I don't enjoy being kept in the dark." He threatened.

"Neither do I." Wufei replied. It was a quick line to provoke. Wufei didn't really care if he pissed him off and Marcus should know that.

They came to a halt facing each other on opposite sides of the weight rack, "Care to go first?" The older man suggested.

"No." Wufei gestured with his hand, "Please you first, I insist. I'll spot you."

The two men that had been holding the bench looked ill at ease at the idea that was proposed, but moved off when Marcus motioned for them to leave. He placed forty-fives on each side of the bar and began once Wufei was in place. Wufei knew by his movements that he was not limited by the weight much. It was obvious he could lift more; he just wanted to make sure there would be no threat. "The man you sent after me. He was on LSD."

"Duh."

Wufei frowned at the dancing eyes staring up at him. "How did you get it in here?"

Marcus snorted, "Yeah. Like I would tell you that."

Wufei nodded. He expected as much. No cooperation among competing thieves. "Can you get anything?"

Marcus frowned as he set the bar back up and sat up on the bench, "Not everything. But most."

Wufei moved to the bench, "If I were to make you a list. Could you get me things?"

"Will you tell me your plans?" Wufei lifted the bar and started lifting the weight.

"Perhaps."

"I will kill you."

Wufei laughed, "I had a friend that used to tell me that."

"What happened to this friend?" Marcus questioned and pressed down on the weight till it touched Wufei's chest. Both interested and a threat.

"He did what he said." Wufei growled and pushed up against Marcus, racking the weight. "He helped throw me in here. He killed me."

Marcus laughed appreciatively at Wufei'saggresion. He was the hardest of the pilots to read when he wanted to be. "Lucky for me you were friends."

"Agreed." Wufei arose from the bench and stretched. "If I make you a list, will you retrieve the goods?"

Marcus paused for a moment and shrugged, "You seem to be the most honest man in here. Will you promise to break my group out?"

Wufei looked around the yard. Donovan was staring at him. Ulviric was watching across the yard. Trent was standing near the grassy patch Wufei usually occupied. Watching.

"Yes."

"Then yes. I will deliver."

* * *

Wufei tried not to smirk as he was being escorted to the warden's office. Everything had been slowly moving towards where he wanted it to be. It had taken a while. Longer then he would have hoped actually. But if the small riots, fights and increased drug usage around the facility had suddenly just started then they would suspect something.

This had to take time. It could not be rushed it required patience.

A week after he had met with Marcus he met with him again.

"I need the strongest and fastest men you have in here. Preferably well rounded like me. And I need a thief." Wufei stated.

Marcus smiled at him. "I have two potentials, but I think that you will need to involve some of the other cell blocks in order to get those men."

Wufei nodded. He had suspected so just by looking at the build. A muscle bound meaty inmate wasn't going to be worth anything to him. He needed stealth and speed.

"That's fine and what I expected. My question is what about the thief?"

Marcus smirked at him, "What you don't know?" Wufei raised one eyebrow. "The best thief I know in this jail is your cell mate. Trent."

Wufei frowned. He hadn't seen Trent as a competent thief in any way. He was awkward in his movements and his personality was too audacious for stealth. Then again Maxwell was the same way. How was it the two noisiest people he had ever met were the best at stealth? It made no sense.

Well he would have to confront Trent about this news later. Wufei still couldn't quite wrap his head around the idea.

"Fine. I need there to start being minor scuffles and fights breaking out and steadily increasing for the next month. Can you make that happen?"

Marcus looked at him and nodded. "Why though?"

"To start the build up to the great escape."

So it had been happening...Slowly. It started off as one scuffle between three guys in the yard. And slowly escalated from there. Three days later another one broke out with different men. They waited a week, before another one broke out.

The latest one involved shanks of mattress wire and injury to one guard. The men got sent to solitaire for that. Problem was that they were running out of holding bays in solitary confinement areas.

Wufei asked for a meeting with the warden and Alan Scott had accepted.

So as they rounded the last corridor that Wufei already had mapped out in his head, the guards let him in to the room where the warden was waiting and left.

"Ah, Wufei. What can I do for you today?"

Wufei stood quietly for a moment and stated, "I believe that you are losing control of your prison."

The man frowned at him and shrugged majorly, coming to some decision in his head. "Yes well. There seems to be a buildup of hostile contention in the prison right now. We don't know exactly why." He conceded. "I would hate to think you have anything to do with this?" He looked Wufei over who gave away nothing.

And Wufei shook his head. "No, I don't." Wufei continued on, "What I do have are potential solutions."

"Really?" He seemed skeptical. Not trusting either.

"I don't like the increased hostility, while I'm waiting for a trial date. One might get caught in the action, unnecessarily. If anything else besides my eliminating of a bully T in defense show up on my record while I'm in here it wouldn't look good. And...I'm bored."

The warden looked him over for a second. This was not a man easily fooled, but he was trusting as long as you gave him no reason not to, "Well then, what might these solutions include?"

"Televisions in each wing. It tends to turn people into drones so why not?"

"The potential danger of having that kind of electrical equipment in the cell block-"

"There is no danger. Just mount it correctly, or put it behind some plastic container." Wufei countered.

The warden nodded, still thinking on it. "You have any other ideas?"

Wufei nodded, but hesitated slightly, before saying, "You are not going to like the idea."

"Try me." He said grandly. This was the type of man he was. Potentially progressive and attempting to make friends with his enemies. It made it easier.

"As I'm sure you know about the on-goings of the prison it has probably come to your attention that I practice my martial arts in the yard almost every day." The warden nodded. "Well several other inmates have expressed interest in learning. And before you object consider this. There has been precedence of boxing tournaments in jails to release aggression in its inmates. I think it might be a good way to help keep these outbursts from happening. Especially since only the...less hostile inmates will be subdued by TV." Wufei shrugged, "Perhaps a tournament."

The warden sat at the desk with his hands clasped together on his desk. He did not seem very moved by Wufei's idea. And when he spoke "Let me think about it." That proved to be true.

"Then we are done here." Wufei turned to leave and the warden stopped him with a question.

"So you would be willing to set up a tournament and train anyone who wanted to learn.?" Wufei nodded, "Why?"

Wufei turned with a clean, honest look on his face and lied through his teeth. "I'm bored. I don't like being bored."

The tone he ended it with held a hint of a threat, not obvious, but there.

When Wufei walked into the cafeteria and looked across the hall to Marcus he nodded at him slightly and went into the cafeteria line. Behind him voices started getting louder inmates were getting rowdier and by the time Wufei got his tray and turned. There was a fight going involving three tables. The guards came to quiet them down and it grew into a small riot as they threw whatever they had at the guards.

The guards were quickly pressed out of the cafeteria, and they locked the doors. The inmates were in a full on riot and Wufei watched as it all unfolded. There were cheers and large attempts to yank the bars off the doors and windows.

When it was obvious it was failing they turned to wrecking the facilities. Trent ducked down behind one of the counters near Wufei and Marcus was observing the mayhem on the far side. There was no way this would result in an escape, but the hostility that had been prodded and grown in the last month was starting to explode.

Wufei really had to question how many men Marcus had under his control now. He couldn't tell if this was pent up frustration or people doing what they were told to do by the master puppeteer. It was a little disconcerting.

A man was coming at him with a broken lunch tray; Wufei kicked him in the stomach before he could get close enough to do something. He picked up the tray and snapped it into smaller fragments, tucking them into his pants.

There were smaller fragments of people still going at full intensity in the attempt to rip the place apart. It wasn't often that they were free of guards. The plan was obviously to wait them out. It was simple enough to lock the doors and wait and it would cause the least amount of harm to the prison guards.

Wufei observed that a couple of the guards had been seriously injured in the scuffle before they gave up the cafeteria. They were being evacuated from the immediate area, while the prison equivalent to swat was being called in.

When the swat team showed up the response time was about ten minutes for a riot. Now how big would the response team be?

The prison was in lock down for the remainder of the day. There were no further meals for the day either after the riot at breakfast. Wufei sat quietly on his bunk starring at his hands trying to calculate his next move. Really it depended on the warden's response to a full prison riot...even if it had been contained that kind of issue was not easily over looked.

Those that had not calmed down after the initial orders to lie face down on the floor had ended up in a holding cell in the alley of death row. There weren't any cells available in solitaire so they dropped them into the only free cells they had.

Trent walked back and forth through the tiny cell; he had too much pent up energy. "Sit down."

Trent complied, but did it on Wufei's bed next to him. Wufei quirked an eyebrow at him, but let it go. At least he wasn't running around the cell any more like a mad man.

Trent and him had become...closer over the last three months of planning. Wufei hated the idea of having friends and calling someone a friend, but that was what Trent was becoming, if he wasn't one already.

The rest of his cell block listened to him now. There hadn't been any fights for leadership, since he started establishing his interest as a leader a month ago. He never used it to tell people what to do, but more as a peacemaker. If they wanted to fight with each other he would stop it and make them refocus on what they were doing.

He didn't need anyone messing with his plans and he was still looking for the few that he could use to break out of this place.

A plan was slowly forming in his mind, but there were still several unknowns.

"So why are you in here?" Wufei hazarded.

Trent stiffened where he sat; he had yet to reveal much about himself. Wufei didn't like it. Especially since he was considering the possibility of using him in the plan. "Why do you want to know?" Wufei shrugged and Trent glared. "What are you going to give me if I tell you?"

Wufei looked up at noise outside his cell. One of the guards walked past. They had been patrolling every hour.

"What do you want to know?" Wufei said back, once the guard has finished passing them at a meandering pace.

"How did you end up in here?" Trent asked.

Wufei stared at the cement wall across from him. Deciding. Thinking. Coming to a conclusion.

"Get the fuck off my bed."

The inmate's language was starting to rub off on him. He didn't like it.

Trent shrugged and hopped into his bunk on top, Wufei lay down on the recently vacated space. They remained silent for the rest of the day.

The next morning brought news of cell block lock downs with three breaks in order to use the shower and eat off the carts of rations and granola packets the guards wheeled in. Instead of a free for all at the food cart there was relative order. Wufei made sure of that.

The lock down would last a week. Wufei was not a fan. Everyone was getting restless and, sure, all he had to do was glare down his nose at these people who were all at least a foot taller than him and then the tension would dissipate, but he was getting tired of the various glares he had to distribute.

The second to last day of the week Wufei was pulled from his cell and escorted out of the block. Everyone sat up and took notices, but didn't say anything. Just outside the double sealed doors he came face to face with the warden. He looked grim.

Wufei stood quietly while the two guards were flanking him.

"If we were to do this." He started cryptically, "If we were to allow you to do your martial arts class- How would you implement it?"

"The first thing I would do would have a tournament. Every man could participate in any style he wanted. Kind of a free-style one on one tournament that would take out initial hostility and move some to want to learn what I offer to teach."

"You would have to win of course." Wufei was silent and gave a look of, 'Really. You're going to question me? Really.' Wufei nodded speaking roughly, "Fine, we'll announce one for the end of next week. I will also be installing a TV in each cell block." He waved to the guards. "You have some good ideas Wufei. I hope this works out as you planned." Warden Scott nodded to the guards to take Wufei back.

Wufei smiled a little at that. "As do I."

* * *

TBC…


	12. Chapter 12

Hello everyone,

After well over a year I'm back. I lost everything on my computer drive despite trying to get it all for months and that disheartened me terribly. I actually stopped writing all together. But I found that I missed it. So as of now I have re written chapters 2 and 3 of this story and re posted them correctly, along with going back and editing the story up till this point.

I'm currently in the process of writing more for this story, but for now consider all my multi part fics on hiatus. Evnetually I will be going back and finishing them along with the full out editing of them, but I would rather focus on this one since it seems to be speaking to me the most right now. I'm sorry for the very long break that I have been on, but I hope not to repeat it any time soon. Here is a new chapter and expect another one to come out sometime next week.

Once again I'm very sorry for the delay. I hope you will still enjoy and review my work.

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Ch12

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The announcement had gone out to the rest of the jail as soon as the lock down had been lifted and men from all over the jail were interested in fighting in the tournament. The televisions had been a big hit too; even if Wufei required that the evening global ESUN news was being watched for a half hour before lights out. No one questioned it and everyone still gathered around to watch. They wanted a distraction from the void that was their lives. The tournament was an excellent distraction and so was the television.

Wufei helped setup the brackets during his work period in the library. There were over a hundred inmates that wanted to fight throughout the prison. Ones that needed to prove points or look tougher for their own protection. Others wanted to remain dominant in their block. And some were just interested in the promised violence. Wufei figured that out when a large inmate from Donnovan's block grinned over the table and ground out. "I'm going to grind you into the mat little one."

Wufei just sat there and added his name and cell block to the list.

Apparently he was still a target. It had been over six months since he had killed T; the memory must have been fading from the other inmates' minds. Not all of them had seen what he could do. And of course, he being the youngest inmate in the prison and the smallest did not help.

It was going to be double elimination tournament. Lose once and you go to the loser's bracket. Lose twice and you were out. Wufei was starting the tournaments with men from the same cell block fighting each other. He hoped he would have an advantage watching for the ones he was looking for that way.

Near the end of his shift, when Wufei was sorting through the names and assigning them to the brackets he had drawn out, Marcus came into the room. Wufei looked up at him, "You going to fight?" Wufei questioned. It was very sarcastic.

Marcus smirked and sat. "No. Of course not. I'm a master manipulator- not a man for fighting."

"Now I know that is not true." Wufei spoke back, looking at the chart again and putting more names down.

Marcus started tapping the table with his fingers; probably a nervous habit more than anything. He joked again, "Of course I am. I have so many men loyal to me inside and outside of this prison. How do you think I am so good at controlling what is going on in the world? And despite being in prison too, I might add."

"Prove it." Wufei challenged. Marcus looked up with a cool calculating look in his eye. "We have the televisions now and I've been watching the news every night. The world is a mess. Riots everywhere. Preventers trying to squash rebellions. Random acts of violence. You are going to need something big in order to make the news at this point."

Marcus was quiet for a while and looked away from Wufei's steady gaze. He was calculating in his head, pros versus cons, knowing he was being challenged and manipulated at the same time. He looked back at Wufei's hard gaze and shrugged.

"Fine. The day after the tournaments ends watch the nightly news. That will give me exactly one week to set this up. I am in prison after all and I do not want you to have any distractions during this upcoming amazing tournament. I think I know who needs to win."

* * *

The yard had been transformed into the arena for the fights over the week. A flat, wooden twelve by twelve platform was erected in the middle of the yard, by the men in the shop and roped off as well. Others had taken the bleachers from various areas of the yard and decided to bring them closer as stands to watch the fighting. It was turning into an actual rink event.

The crowd gathered immediately; guards were present on the walls. The rules were announced earlier: If someone taps out that was it. If someone was knocked unconscious the match was over. It was hand to hand only, no weapons would be allowed of any sort. Each fight would go on as long as need be. No assistance could be given from members outside the platform. Double elimination would be the rules.

A group of guys had volunteered to be the 'medical evacs'. Anyone needing medical treatment would be delivered to the edge of the fence by them and left so the actual doctors and guards could take care of the inmate.

And so it began. One round after the next. No one had been seriously hurt yet. Mostly just bloodied up and released back into the yard. As Wufei had suspected most of the men were brawlers, not trained for efficiency. These inmates were mainly dirty.

Wufei had been impressed with Ulvric's fight as he had thought he would be. The man had proved to be incredibly fast, but lacking in striking knowledge. He had indeed been a long distance assassin. Probably with poisons and sniper rifles.

There was another roar of the crowd as another inmate from Marcus's block fell with a thud. It looked like he would be out. Wufei looked at the chart and handed it to Trent walking off the bleachers and over to the platform as the man was taken off and the other fighter celebrated his victory.

Trent stood and announced, "Next fight is Frank against..Chang." The crowd had mixed reactions. Large cheering from Donnovan's block as the man named Frank entered the ring and interested chatter from other blocks.

No one had seen him fight except those in his block. And those in his block were watching alertly. Marcus was watching with amusement. Donnovan watched with intrigue and mirth.

Wufei stood across from Frank and didn't bother taking a ready position. It was the same man that had promised to grind him into the mat from earlier in the week; he had set up the bracket that way on purpose. Frank was busy stripping and flexing and roaring towards his support section. Apparently this was going to be an easy fight according to him.

Wufei noted the guards watching intently now. Had Warden Scott given them specific instructions?

Trent shouted, "Begin!" And the fight started.

Wufei just stood watching Frank grin across from him. "Are you to scared to move little boy? Do you want your mommy?" His grin faded slightly when Wufei did nothing, despite mocking laughter from some of the inmates.

Frank approached him with his hands up, a boxer. The man was large and muscular. He lunged with a right cross. Wufei side-stepped him, pushed him into a post using his own momentum and he fell to the ground. Before he could get up off the ground Wufei grabbed the back of his head and slammed it against the floor.

He was out. It was less than twenty seconds and Frank was unconscious with a bloody nose.

The crowd was silent and Wufei walked off and sat next to Trent. It hadn't been an elegant fight and definitely dirtier then the way Wufei usually fought. But it was effective and that was all that mattered. He grabbed the list and said, "The next fight is between Nick the Bear and Juan."

The medivac crew was pulling Franks body off the platform and Wufei looked up at the guards. Money was being exchanged. They were betting on the fights; that let his alert level go down a little. At least he was not being watched for any particular reason. His plan was not in jeopardy.

The first rounds of fighting finished that day. Wufei took down is opponents as quickly as he could with as little movement as possible. He wanted to keep up the façade of cool and collected, to intimidate as much as possible. Wufei announced second round would be tomorrow. There were several comments between those that would be fighting the next day. Ranging from 'Sorry I'm going to have to kick your ass.' to 'I'm going to fuck you up.'

No one said anything to Wufei.

* * *

The tournament finished with a long battle between himself and a tall dark skinned man from Donovan's cell block. By long he meant that that is lasted more than two minutes, which was actually quite a long fight compared to most that Wufei had been in. Other inmates' fights could have lasted more than ten minutes. But that was simply because there was no technique it was just based on who got knocked unconscious first.

But Wufei was indeed thrilled with how this turned out. He had selected men from each cell block to learn new fighting techniques. He didn't want to have to train them for a long period of time. It was trying being locked away like this even if he had things to do to edge the boredom away, but six long months. And it would be at least another before he could set his plan in motion.

Wufei thought over his list of men though and cringed slightly. The biggest fault with this plan was that of the twelve fighters he selected half of them were a part of Donovan's side. Ulvric was the only one he selected from his cell block. If you counted Trent that was thirteen. Six in Donovan's, three from Marcus and two from Eckpo's block. Wufei had not thought much of Eckpo. He was a drug smuggler almost all the higher ups had something to do with smuggling, which was interesting.

Marcus had spoken of organizing an event in the outside world the day after the tournament. Wufei would be watching the news. To see what he could do. But first he had to think of how to approach the men he wanted.

Trent was asleep on his bunk so Wufei poked the springs from the underside; green eyes peered over edge of the bunk at him, "What's up?" He whispered groggily. It was late, well past lights out, but Wufei had not been able to sleep.

"Come down here." Wufei scooted over on his bunk and waited for Trent to come sit next to him. Once there he leaned back against the wall next to Wufei.

"What's up?" He was rubbing his eyes blearily and his hair was sticking in a funny direction.

"I need help with the plan."

Trent instantly was alert and looking at Wufei, sitting ramrod straight. No matter how many times he had pestered him in the past three months of planning an escape Wufei had never once volunteered what he was thinking or information about what he was planning to do. And now he was trying to include Trent. "I've selected the men I want to work with, but I do not like Donovan and half of the recruits would be from his camp. I would rather have Donovan rot in jail."

"If you include them, they will tell."

"I know."

They paused listening for guards. They patrolled at odd hours throughout the night so they had to be careful and quiet. Neighboring cells could even be problematic in situations like this. "If they align with his group they are loyal to him. He will know the plan as soon as you tell them."

Wufei nodded. He presumed as much. "I just don't like him."

Trent nodded, "That's fair he doesn't like you either." Wufei looked over at Trent questioningly. He looked away before spitting out, "It's just a story."

Wufei frowned when Trent went silent, "Please go on."

Trent hesitated then barreled on with, "He apparently doesn't like Chinese people." Wufei frowned a little. So Donovan was racist. There were still bigots and morons in the world this was nothing new to him. "Well…" Trent hesitated. Wufei pinched his side to get him to keep talking. "The story is…. you know when that colony in lagrange point five blew up? The population was mostly Chinese." Wufei nodded, but his insides were clenched. No way did Donovan have anything to do with that. He knew everyone who did and there was no way it was Donovan. "Well apparently he set up networks at every port in the surrounding colonies to try and find people who wanted to find their fellow colony members. From the L5 that blew up. For any of them that happened to be off colony at the time. As soon as he had them, he would ship them off. He is a human trafficker, after all." Trent was looking out the grates to check for guards wandering by.

Wufei was in shock. Staring at nothing. "What happened to them?"

Trent shrugged. "I don't know. It's just a story. I doubt he got very many of them. I'd imagine asteroid mines or sex trade."

"He targeted because they were Chinese?" Wufei said again.

Trent nodded, "That and if a colony just exploded, no one knows who died and who lived. It's easier pickings then just thieving.

"Go back to bed. We'll discuss this more in the morning."

Trent looked at Wufei and tensed, but did as he was told. Wufei lay back on his bed, staring up at the bunk above him. Mind blank. Any colony members that may have survived were sealed to a different fate, one that was unpleasant in every way. The asteroid minors tended to die quickly from various explosions. Half of their work force was criminals or junkies. They paid them in the drugs they sought. It was and profitable for the companies.

The rest sealed to sex trade. Wufei cringed. That was no life at all to have. His people, hell his neighbor's wife could be suffering from that fate. People's faces just flashed in front of his eyes. Friends, neighbors, family, the man that worked in the local corner store…

Wufei did not sleep that night.

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TBC...

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So there you have it! I hope it was up to my usual intriguing standards. Once again I'm very sorry for the extremely long break.

-silverserpent


	13. Chapter 13

Here's the next chapter! Enjoy!

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Ch 13

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Wufei glared at the bars that were holding him in the cell waiting for lights on. He hadn't been able to sleep thinking about the potential people of his colony that were out there suffering. Or had been and were now dead because of the terrible fate they found themselves in after trying to find fellow survivors. It was true that there probably hadn't been many that were gullible enough to run into the man's trap, but stories were based in fact and Wufei felt like ripping the man limb from limb. Slowly and painfully.

The faint buzzing told him the lights were about to pop on and allow them to begin there regularly scheduled day. He sat there waiting till the bars clanged open for morning count. Trent awoke groggily behind him came out to the rack. The all clear was given and Wufei returned to his bunk.

His mind had been on fire last night thinking of all the different angles and plots that he could possibly conduct that would lead to Donovan's painful death. But none of the thirty or forty different angles he came up with the previous night could eliminate Donovan in the plan. None of them.

He clenched his fists in rage. He would kill him in the end. This was revenge on an entirely new level. For now the man would live, but hopefully not for long. Trent came in and kneeled in front of Wufei. "You look like you're going to murder someone."

"Eventually" he shot out cryptically. He was thinking of his new day ahead. He needed to court the new fighters and gather information to areas that he didn't have access to. He looked at Trent who seemed to have backed off slightly and said, "What do you know about me?"

Trent shrugged and looked mildly confused. "I know that you came as a terrorist. No one seems to know exactly what you did though. Most people avoid you simply from the fighting they've seen here." Wufei focused on the grey cement wall just over Trent's head. So, the Preventers did not release the names of the operatives that worked on the cases. Or else Wufei would have been in more trouble from day one. And he doubted that many knew that he was a Gundam pilot. Those that did appeared to be keeping it to themselves.

"Marcus hasn't told you anything?" He questioned.

Trent shook his head but continued, "I know he has some information on you that he won't share. But he won't tell anyone." There was a hint of frustration in his voice. So it would be in his file, but not public knowledge. That was probably why the nurse knew, but the inmates didn't. Marcus only knew because he had been a contact during the war as a weapons dealer for them.

Wufei fixed Trent with a gaze of steel. "Why are you in here?" Trent froze at the switch in the line of questioning. It was unexpected. Wufei softened his look a little, "I will tell you why I am here, if you tell me why you are."

Trent chewed on his inner cheek for a bit thinking to himself. He exhaled loudly and said, "I said I followed my friend." Wufei nodded, "It was Marcus." Trent shook his head a little, "He got arrested from a Preventer sting and he was locked up inside and he started his recruiting, but he had nothing to offer some of the people in here. He said it was rough going except for the four others that were thrown in at the same time. He needed to be able to offer the other inmates something. I was one of the best smugglers and pick pockets he had and he had been my friend for so long...I..."

He looked out into the hall at some passing inmates, "I lifted a secretary's access badge to a Preventer office. Walked in to the deepest portion of the building I could and planted a bomb. Came forward for it saying there would be more." He shrugged, "There weren't of course, but they didn't know that. Then to ensure I got into a maximum facility prison, I pickpocketed the guard as they led me in front of the judge, released my handcuffs, drew his weapon and fired at the judge. It seemed to scare him enough into sentencing me to a max security prison. Then they kept transferring me for my own safety until I ended up here."

Wufei frowned. "What do you mean for your own safety?"

Trent smiled kind of crookedly and looked up at Wufei, "Marcus used his influence the best he could to get me in to this facility sooner, but sometimes I had to be creative." He lifted his shirt revealing random scars across the front of his torso. Knife wounds, burns one looked like a hook had taken a chunk out of his side. But as he looked Wufei saw the patterns...

"They're self-inflicted." He intoned softly.

"Yes." He looked at him daring Wufei to question him.

"You are a very loyal."

"I'm a fool."

Wufei nodded, "That too." He smirked. "I take it that Marcus got the leverage he need from you?" He nodded.

"As soon as I got in I was able to figure out running routes to smuggle, which guards were bribe-able and what inmates needed a strong alliance. Marcus now has at least a third of the men in the prison and four guards." He looked proud at the same time he looked frustrated. "I just expected a little more from him. He placed me in this block and I know why, but it leaves me out to hang regularly."

Wufei frowned at the last comment. "And you don't object to this behavior? Why are you still loyal to him?"

He shrugged. "I just..." Wufei saw his cheeks turn pink slightly, "I don't want to talk about it." And he got up and left the room. Wufei looked after him. If he was not mistaken... Trent loved Marcus. Or at least really, really liked.

That definitely meant he shouldn't reveal anything to him unless he was ready to let Marcus know. It was not the easiest way to go around planning things, but it was the only way available to him at the moment. Trent would be facing a tough lesson eventually though. Wufei had already learned it. Trent just hadn't gotten there yet.

* * *

Wufei waited in the corner of the yard where he always did his practices. Ulvric was already heading towards him, which was a good sign. It appeared the man was okay with relying on Wufei for a way out of the jail. Marcus ensured Wufei that the men he selected would show up from his group. Wufei had asked Ulvric to request the presence of Donovan's men, which he did. Wufei contacted the two of Eckpo's. Now he waited to see who would show up. He didn't necessarily need all of them, but it would help in the end.

As promised when the other cell blocks made their way out into the yard Marcus's four men headed over. They looked wary, but they were there along with Ulvric. Three out of six of Donovan's men came over shortly after that while the two Eckpo men came as well, though they stood a slight ways off. Wufei scanned the crowd of men and it did not appear that any more would be heading over.

Wufei faced all of them, "Thank you for coming. I would like to say that I thought you were all the best fighters in the prison." Wufei looked over all of them. Some still stood off cautious, while others were thinking deeply. They were all mid weight builds, even if they were all different heights, but that wasn't a disadvantage and Wufei could see it when he looked over them all.

They all thought for themselves. It's what made them good fighters. They would be able to adapt to new situations quickly, which would be important in a break out. He scanned all of them, "I would like to show you all some new fighting techniques."

There was a scoff or two from one of Donovan's men. "Why should we care?"

Wufei nodded, "It will make you a better fighter. True, you do not necessarily need to get better. But it will keep the boredom away. And for those of you that stick around, there may be rewards you do not see yet." He looked at each one of them, trying to impress upon them, how interesting and possibly meaningful, this new challenge of theirs could be. "That's all today. I just wanted to send out this invitation."

They all dispersed slowly. Ulvric stayed. "Vy not tell zem it vas to break out of zis place?"

Wufei watched the chosen men's' backs as they moved back to join their groups, "because I want to know what their allegiances are first. I want to see what kind of people they are. If I told you that you could not tell anyone, but that we were breaking out of the prison. What would you say?

He frowned down at Wufei and, "I vould not tell anyvone."

Wufei nodded. "Good. But that is because you have no true leader. All of them do. " And sure enough as they watched each of the men checked in with their heads of pack. Other than Marcus's men and that was probably because he told them they would be participating no matter what. They would probably tell him things that were actually applicable to getting out. None of this prep work beforehand. "What do you do for your job Ulvric? What is your task during work time?"

"I clean."

"Where at?"

"In zhe hallz near zhe cafeteria."

Wufei frowned. He had access to that area too. "Have you seen any storage areas or security taping rooms?" Ulvric shook his head as Wufei expected. He had not seen any rooms for security or maintenance either. He needed that information. Once again he was going to be forced to rely on people. At least he knew not to trust these men.

* * *

Wufei waited and watched that evening. The news was on and Marcus had promised an act of violence after the tournament. When the news did flash on there was a story of mass violence that popped up first. Thirteen different open shootings occurred outside of Preventer offices. Multiple employees and civilians were taken out in the drive-by shootings and the policing forces were startled at such an abrupt and seemingly violent attack against the Preventers. There were also two bombs of senate member's homes, but it seemed to be unrelated according to them. Wufei knew otherwise.

This had Marcus written all over and he was both impressed and disappointed.

The violence was indeed what Wufei was expecting, especially against an organization such as the Preventers. The group was used to gun running. They were heavily armed and thus able to deal the random and sporadic damage. But they had no concept of planning or execution. Wufei would have thought better. But then again, maybe that was why Marcus was still in the jail instead of outside it…

What was he going to do? Teach a how to kill and design terrorist plots better class for inmates? Wufei snorted at the errant thought in his head before heading to his bunk.

When Wufei returned to his bunk Trent was up and waiting for him. "You did not tell me why you were in here this morning." He accused as soon a Wufei walked in.

Wufei ignored him and used the toilette in the back of their dark cell, before coming back and sitting on the bed to face Trent. "Well it was not like you stayed long enough to tell you." Trent blushed.

"Well I just didn't want to talk about the subject anymore."

Wufei smirked, "So I gathered." Wufei motioned to Trent to sit next to him on the bed again as they had this morning. When Trent complied Wufei spoke, "You must not tell anyone what I am about to tell you." Trent nodded.

"I was one of the Gundam pilots." Trent stiffened next to him. "I was the one that was recruited by Mariemeia for the second incident." The body next to him didn't move so Wufei got up putting distance between them.

He leaned his back against the cool concrete wall of the cell to ground himself. "Shortly after I joined the Preventers." He looked at the ground. "The blanket pardon had occurred. I was working with my other pilots on some cases and I was one of the top field agents the organization had. But I was betrayed. The government wanted blood and my friends decided to plot against me, corral me into a corner, and hand me over." Wufei was bitter. It dripped from his every word and he let it. "So now I'm in here with all of you. I've helped put away many of these inmates. And it looks like the government does not care to give me a fair or just trial at all."

He went silent and waited. Waited for the anger that would come at him. After all, he was the one that put Marcus in here, which was why Trent was now in here.

Instead, Trent stood up and stepped in front of Wufei and pulled him into a hug. Wufei was shocked at first. He had been expecting to be hit. He bridled hard and shoved Trent away. "What are you doing? You should be angry you should want to destroy me after what you told me. I'm the one that put Marcus away! You are in here because of me!"

Trent shook his head and looked a little sad, "I'm in here because of my own foolishness and my love of Marcus. You are in here because you were betrayed by the only family you had. I can't be mad at you. Not when you are the one who has a right to be angry."

Wufei just looked at Trent and went around him to lie on his bed. He just didn't understand how people can be so naïve and full of compassion in this awful world. How could someone blindly follow someone else into jail or claim to care, but leave you there to rot. There were to many crossed messages and to find this kind of concern for him… for his wellbeing…

He didn't understand.

* * *

TBC..

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Well there you go,

Hope it was good. Reviews are awesome! I like them more then chocolate.

-Silverserpent


	14. Chapter 14

Hey guys! Thank you so much for those of you who review! It for sure helps me write a lot faster. I'm a little late on my weekly update, but here you go! I hope you enjoy

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Ch 14

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Wufei looked over the men in his small group sparring with each other. Blocks and swift kicks flew in multiple directions and he felt something inside him ignite. They were so very close. The necessary pieces were falling in place and that was all that mattered. His mind was fixated and he thought of nothing else. Every time one of the 'core', as he called the fighters he had picked out, were able to attain a small piece of information that got them closer to their goals he quickly incorporated it into the plan and sought the next chunk.

The group in front of him was larger now than the initial core, additions of inmates that had to be made in order to get the operation to work. Whether they were necessary or they were smart enough to figure out that there was something going on, they had needed to be added. All things considered, approximately fifty people participating in his classes out of the twelve hundred inmates in the prison was not that large of a number to know that there would be an attempted break out. Of course there were those that knew, but weren't learning the fighting, but the secret seemed to be better maintained then Wufei would have anticipated. Apparently a lot of people were very focused on getting out. Especially since most of them had multiple life sentences to their name.

Donovan of course knew what was happening. But Wufei had plans for him on the way out.

For actual training, Wufei did not even attempt to teach the men his fighting style that had been ingrained in him since childhood. It took him years to master it and it would be the same for them. Instead he focused on teaching them quick-effective take-downs and blocks. It would be necessary for certain situations if they encountered resistance.

He also began asking them to find out little things. Where maintenance closets were, where the security camera bay was, which security guards had what habits, what corridors led where, where were any helpful implements that they could grab. Some of the information was useless, like the security camera bay. They found it, but it was on the way to the warden's office on the second level and would not be an effective strategy despite the desire to knock them out somehow.

Another problem was the supplies they would need. Especially to open the doors to the cell blocks. It was controlled in a room that could be auto-locked from the inside. Just because certain areas the prison were lax in security did not mean that it was echoed in other areas of the facilities.

Everyone who knew that something was going to happen was on their best behavior most of the time. No one knew exactly when it was going to happen and neither did Wufei. He knew what he needed and he had been waiting for it as patiently as a man with a purpose could.

He had talked with Marcus three weeks prior.

"I need pills." He spoke abruptly and softly next to Marcus in the cafeteria line.

Marcus frowned, "I did not think you were a pill popper Wufei. Why the sudden change?"

"Not for me and not speed or E or whatever your normal clientele asked for." Wufei hissed quietly. He was not someone that would wreck his body that way. "I need constipation medication and vomiting pills."

Marcus cringed slightly. "You want pills that make you vomit and pills that will make you have diarrhea? Seriously?"

Wufei nodded. "We're going to have an epidemic on our hands."

Marcus was thoughtful for a while, "That's easy. I'll put an order for it tomorrow. Anything else? I'm starting to get impatient. I would really like to get out of here soon."

"Agreed." His voice was full of resentment that he still felt. The time passing had not lessened it any further. It didn't grow, but it didn't shrink. "We are of course going to need transport away from the facility. I would prefer not to be in cars."

Marcus nodded, "That will be easy and I have it lined up I just need to give them the go ahead."

"The other thing I will need will be very expensive and hard to come by." Marcus's eyes narrowed, but he nodded to continue. "EMP emitters. Six of them."

Marcus looked like he was thinking, "What are those?"

"Electromagnetic pulse emitters. They can disrupt electric circuits. We need six. The ones we need are small, about the size of a nine volt battery, two inches by half an inch but about a quarter inch thick. And I need a timer attached to one of them."

"Sounds like they are difficult to procure." Wufei nodded in confirmation as they moved towards the end of the cafeteria line. "I will see what I can do."

"Do that. Without them this plan will take a lot longer. I'll have to think of another way."

Three weeks and he didn't have what he needed. Three weeks of waiting. Everything else was now ready to go. He knew which ways they would go and what times they would go at. The waiting was getting to him. One of Marcus's men was coming across the yard towards the group and nodded to Wufei. He stepped close and spoke urgently, "There's going to be a guard switch on Friday. Some of the new recruits will be doing a test run on Thursday." Four days away. "They're bringing in a new batch of recruits and the old ones are moving off to another facility." Wufei glared at the man who backed away quickly.

Don't kill the messenger. It was a good adage to live by, but still Wufei couldn't help the fact that he really wanted to rip the head off this messenger. All their planning would be going to waste unless they made their move on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest and they still did not have their emitters. The guards would change, which means their habits would change and who they could bribe would change. Fuck!

He glowered over the group and in front of him and growled before trying to calm himself. A little over eight months of rotting in this place for something that he should not have had to deal with. The first three were spent in a dark room and with the stupid idea of hope, from who he thought his friends had been and the idea of freedom by law. And now more than five of watching and planning and waiting for everything to align only to be screwed over by guard switching. This was not what he wanted. This was not supposed to happen!

Wufei moved off and started moving through his old katas till he could calm himself. He needed focus. Perhaps there would be another way that would come to mind if he just focused.

Yard time was called and everyone moved off for the rest of the day. Wufei tried to remain focused throughout the rest of the afternoon, but his mind was drawing a complete blank. He couldn't think of a second escape route. Nothing was coming. He was an excellent mission writer, but if you did not have the resources you needed what were you supposed to do?

That night Wufei lay down during the final free period of the day and stared up at the beaten old mattress above him. He blanked his mind before he could feel that crush that he had the day his possible freedom had been denied. Trent walked in and stood by the gate. He swallowed something in his hand and stepped further in sitting down at the foot of Wufei's bed.

"Why so glum, chum?" Wufei glared at the man in front of him. Despite knowing what he had done in the past the man had not changed his attitude much, despite his reactions the first night he told him he was a Gundam pilot.

"They are changing the guards on Friday with testers on Thursday. If we don't get what we need by tomorrow at the latest we can't get out for at least another two months. Longer than that if we need to learn which guards can be bribed again."

It didn't seem to faze Trent at all. He got up, moved to the back of the cell and started doing jumping jacks rapidly. Wufei frowned at him, but ignored him as long as he could. Two minutes later he growled out, "What are you doing idiot?"

"Getting really sweaty" was the reply. Wufei frowned and tilted his back to look at Trent moving rapidly up and down. He looked red in the face and was sweating a little more than normal. Wufei stood up confused as Trent stopped jumping. He looked a little pale now. Flushed and pale. He grinned at him though, "Hug me and I'll give you a present." He said. Wufei frowned as the boy held out his arms.

"No."

"Come on, Wufei. Trust me. You'll like it." Trust. Ha. He wouldn't make that mistake. After looking at his pleading face for a short while Wufei stepped up, moved towards the boy and hugged him as briefly as humanly possible and stepped back.

"Now why are you acting like a lunatic?" He held out his palm. And in it was a small bag...with five EMPs in it. Wufei reached forward and grabbed it cautiously. "They came in today." Wufei smiled as he held them in his hand. This was it. The key to everything. He felt relief rush shoot through him, followed by an adrenaline rush of excitement.

Wufei felt Trent's hand on his shoulder and looked up. "I have the timer. I've set it for Thursday, at the end of lunch. I need to place it on the green pipe. Correct?" Wufei nodded. "Eight months, Wufei. And I've never seen you smile like this." Quicker then Wufei ever saw him move Trent leaned in and pressed his lips to Wufei's before backing off quickly, looking paler by the minute. "I took a puking pill fifteen minutes ago. I'm looking sick and sweaty. It's time to find a guard." And he left the cell. Wufei was stunned momentarily, but then stuck the baggy in his waist band and headed out to the deck outside. Trent was moving slowly and weaving, miss-stepping every few feet, till he got to one of the guards. He vomited and fell over sideways, holding his stomach. Those pills were either really strong or he was an excellent actor. The guard hauled him to his feet, where he promptly keeled over at the waist and vomited again, before he was hauled out by the guard on the way to the medical bay.

It began.

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TBC...

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Alrighty! Reviews are craved like Wufei getting it on!

Yeah I went there.

-silverserpent


	15. Chapter 15

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to say thank you so much for the reviews. They help me stay excited about what's going on and writing. It's always good to here feedback, whether you love it or hate it. So THANKS!

Now on with the fic!

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Ch 15

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Everyone was tense. Wufei could feel it in the air and he could help, but let a small amount of nervousness enter into his thoughts. What if they didn't make it out? What if the guards were picking up on the mood as various pockets of men were tensing with excitement and actively trying to calm themselves?

They had to make it out. Forget them. He had to make it out. There was no other option. It was necessary for his survival. Not physically. There was no way he would ever be taken advantage of physically, but mentally he needed this to work. If today failed. If today landed him back in solitary... he couldn't face what he would do then.

He glanced up at the clock. Twenty minutes to go. They wouldn't move till fifteen minutes to go. He had to force himself to wait. To be calm, to focus and reject the crushing pressure of possible failure. He went over details quickly and counted heads. Trent was gone, still in the infirmary. He was supposed to be though, had been since Monday and he was sorry to realize he missed the distraction the twenty year old offered. He squelched that thought as soon as it popped up.

The two men from Eckpo's group and two from Donovan had also been moved to the infirmary for something that could be only termed explosive diarrhea. It was distasteful, but necessary and the pills were doing what they were supposed to. It was quick but steady over the last three days. Now it was Thursday. The guards started thinking that they may have an epidemic on their hands. No one had caught sight of the new guards, but they were probably in low security zones. Three minutes to go.

They all should have stopped taking the pills last night, which meant that their symptoms would have stopped. Two of Marcus's men were supposed to have started an altercation with each other. They were notably absent. They must have needed stiches as Wufei planned, right before lunch.

Fifteen minutes to. He was on.

Wufei glanced over at Ulvric and nodded minutely. Wufei felt eyes on him as Marcus watched. They knew what would happen; everyone that knew what was going to happen knew the plan and the importance. Even Donovan had been watching for the move. Only the inner groups knew the full plan. The rest would pick up on the action as soon as it happened. He got up and gripped his stomach, schooling his stomach in a hopefully convincing wince of discomfort.

He began flexing his stomach muscles as hard as he could internally for the correct ripple. He walked straight up to the guard at the entrance and said, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"Sit down Chang I'll take you after lunch is over." The guard said gruffly. The security were always eager for lunch to be over; they got their breaks immediately after. Wufei flexed and projectile vomited on the wall next to the guard. He was almost ready to clench his stomach again in case he needed to go another round or dry-heave when the guard said, "Shit! Fine. Alicia will take you" and let him pass into the hall.

Wufei walked in what was not his usual confident strong manner as best as he could, willing himself to project weakness as he walked slowly out into the hall with the female guard Alicia next to him. She was competent and not the one he wanted with her, but it would work out fine. As they approached the infirmary hall Wufei heard quite a few voices in the room. It sounded as though the doctor was arguing about a patient's release.

Wufei straightened up as they passed into the door. He immediately spotted Trent and moved towards the open bed next to him. They were all here and one of Eckpo's men, Dravus, was arguing with the doctor about being released into gen pop. He felt fine; there was no reason to keep him longer. Good.

Wufei sat and waited. Alicia stepped out to wait in the hall. Excellent. He waited. The cameras went out. Their normal movement and indicator light had stopped. Wufei reached blindly at Trent who deposited a hand full of tranquilizers in his hand. He tucked them into the waistband of his underwear by his back and nodded towards the others. Trent tapped his fingers twice on the bed frame. Yes. He had distributed the tranquillizers. He had been placed in the ward earlier than the others to steal the tranquilizers at opportune moments, when the cameras were not facing his way or when the doctors were out of the room. It was a job that would have taken patience and large amounts of stealth. He did well.

The doctor turned from Dravus and went to Wufei, "What seems to be the problem?"

"I threw up."

The doctor frowned and muttered. "Another one." She ran a thermometer over his forehead and she looked at it. "Well you seem normal."

Wufei nodded, "I think the food just did not agree with me today. I'm ready to go back." Her eyes narrowed. She was a smart one. This could be problematic.

"All of you seem to want to go back." Shaking her head, she looked over all the men in the ward. "Not one of you had a bacterium I could stick to any of your symptoms." She exhaled loudly as Wufei started contemplating silencing her. It looked like one of Donovan's men wanted to as well with the whitening in his eyes. "Fine. I will call the guard to escort your release. They will just be leading the rest of the inmates back from lunch.

She left the room and Wufei exhaled. There was sense of relief from all of the men in the room.

Five minutes later four guards arrived at the doorway and a technician. The technician was unexpected. The doctor came out and frowned again, "I called for an escort for eight prisoners. This is subpar."

The lead guard glowered at her. He did not like being told how to do his job, "Yes, I know we normally have two guards per escort, but the guys wanted to get to lunch break and I was inclined to let them. We came with semies to counter it and we'll even cuff them, if it makes you feel any better. Now can we escort the prisoners?" Indeed each one of them was more heavily armed then with semi-automatic hand guns. Normally it was only tazers. Unless it was an external escort.

She did not like the patronizing tone, "What's the tech for?"

"The cameras went out, but only in the medical ward. He's here to figure out what's up." He looked bored and ready to go. As did the others, they were not at any sort of attention. In fact they were relaxed in posture and focused on the doctor instead of the prisoners.

But Wufei saw it. There was an edge in her stance. The doctor knew something was up. It was too much coincidence. Patients who were sick with no identified cause, all getting better at the same time. The cameras going out. Gen-pop being placed back into their blocks, to prep for their work shift. The guard being smaller than the normal escorts. And as she looked around at all of the patients in her room she realized this was the crew that Wufei was training with in the yard. She had treated them for cuts and other minor injuries for quite some time now.

Wufei had a brief minute of panic when her eyes landed on him, calculating. And she looked back at the guard who had just insulted her intelligence. "They're all yours." She said with a half smirk.

As they filed out of the room two by two with a guard between each, Wufei heard the distinctive click of a lock on the medical ward. That room was supposed to stay unlocked throughout the day. Wufei looked back and saw through the window, the women was holding a gun and checked the drawers. She must have noticed the tranquillizers were gone as she shook her head. Wufei couldn't fault her for the gun or the lock. If there were going to be criminals on the loose she may find herself in a compromised position.

They split off to their cell blocks with the escorts.

This was it. Each group had their objectives and designated meet up. He knew which inmates knew the plan and which would riot until they found out there was an escape going on. He had distributed the EMPs as he was supposed to.

He and Trent were approaching their cell block door. Wufei quelled his nerves, striving for absolute calm. He stood close to the door with his cuffed hands in front of him Trent standing just behind him also waiting. The guard, it was Alicia again, nodded to the person in the control bay who opened the first door to the cell block. Wufei could see Ulvric just on the other side ten feet off waiting, but tense.

She turned to remove Wufei's hand cuffs. She turned to unlock Trent as he rubbed his wrists and stretched his back hands sinking closer to his waistband...

The alarms blared echoing in the hall. He grabbed a tranquillizer and slammed it into her arm before she could react. She dropped like a brick within seconds. Wufei immediately sank and grabbed her gun; Trent went for her tazer, badge, and keys.

He turned to the red locked signal on the controller room's door, placed the EMP on it and pressed. The lock light shut off. Deactivated. He wrenched the door open and faced the man inside gun pointing at him. "Release the inner door or die."

The man nodded and Wufei hauled the unconscious guard in as the man pressed the button.

It was like a slow surge. Ulvric and a few others who knew immediately ran out of the double doors that were wide open. There were general shouts of exclamation as the entire block now knew what the alarm was for and began surging out as fast as they could.

Wufei, Trent and Ulvric were already far ahead and keeping low. Swat had yet to show up and if they did this right, they wouldn't be there when they did. At the first meet up join on the way Marcus's men and Marcus were there and Eckpo with his guys. They had to wait. "Where's Donovan's crew?"

"They haven't showed yet." Marcus said. "We need to leave now."

"We have to wait."

"There's no time!"

Wufei growled at the Marcus and the group of fifteen or so men behind him. "We have to wait!" He turned to those he trained. "Split up ahead. Take the east corridor and the north on the way. Hold it." They nodded each checking what weapons they could.

Another minute ticked by. And gun shots fired in the corridor behind them Wufei turned, Donovan's crew was moving rapidly towards them with wire clippers. "Now."

He turned and bolted. That's what they need. Donovan's crew had access to the tools in the machine shop. He ran ahead to his two waiting teams. They had been exchanging fire with security, by the bullet holes littering the wall. It looked like one guard that had been surprised was unconscious via tranq. "Move on!" He shouted. They were so close to the visitor's room he could taste it.

That was their weakest point in security. There was no other way out.

Turning the corridor Wufei took out the last EMP he had and placed it on the red lit lock. He turned to Ulvric. "You ready." He nodded, getting low. Wufei pressed, the lock shorted he Ulvric kicked in the door and took the guard closest to him hand to hand. Wufei saw another inmate go down with a tazer. He bolted in and got real close to the guard that had used the tazer and backhanded him across the face. Wufei pointed to the chain-link fence that he remembered from eight and a half- no nine months prior, "Start now!" Donovan's crew moved through.

Wufei turned back to the guard that was now moving at his feet and he kicked him in the stomach. He grabbed hand cuffs off him and wrenched the man's hands behind his back and looked into his face.

He inhaled sharply and froze in place.

It was a new recruit for sure, but it was the brilliant green eyes and face of Trowa Barton that looked up at him. Trowa Barton was in the jail as a new guard recruit and starring up at Wufei in shock.

Wufei punched him in the face. Then did it again. Trowa was unconscious in cuffs at his feet. As a new recruit.

"What are we gonna do with him? I saw some inmates really ripping into one of the guards in a hallway back there." Donovan whispered in his ear behind him.

"You die now." Wufei turned, gun in hand.

Wufei heard the ratchets of several guns pointing at him. "If you kill him we kill you." It looked like his men were loyal till the end. Even when they were four wire cuts from freedom.

Wufei dropped his gun to his side. Giving in, "Hurry up!"

They went back to work quickly. Donovan moved towards them and Marcus came over, "That is who I think it is, isn't it?" Wufei glared, but nodded. "What are you going to do?"

"I won't leave him here. Not with these animals running loose." Marcus looked like he was going to protest. "I'll drop him as soon as I can." Wufei saw the other inmates, the less focused ones beating on the other guard.

A final click and the gate was open. They rushed through and Wufei hauled Trowa up over his shoulder and stepped out of the chain link. Donovan and his men had rushed through first and were fast on their way to freedom. Wufei yelled over his shoulder at Marcus, "Which way for evac?"

"North. Helios will find us."

Wufei saw the double doors at the exit and a body flash out of them. He heard guns firing again. Must be the guards on the walls.

He peaked out the door and saw three men on the ground one gripping his shoulder. Donovan and his crew were running as fast as they could out of the open parking lot into the light cover of cornfields beyond. Wufei hauled Trowa's body upright in front of him. If the shooters were using snipers they would see the guard's uniform.

He pressed forward out the door and heard a gunshot, but it missed. "Hold your fire! Echoed from the roof above him." It was a small enough break He turned and shot. Head. The man fell. He spotted two more and shot twice, either stumbling or falling dead out of sight. He hauled Trowa's body over his shoulder again and ran.

Not thinking, not feeling. Just ran. He knew Marcus was behind him and he heard the noise of helicopters before he saw them. Three dropped from above and Marcus's men jumped into them. Wufei and Ulvric made it in along with Marcus. They lifted up and Wufei looked back. The swat vans were pulling up. There were hundreds of trails through the corn field as inmates scattered as fast as they could. Wufei could see tail lights of Donovan's vehicles and Eckpo heading in the other direction. He would kill Donovan one day. He swore it.

Wufei looked at the limp body of Trowa next to him on the floor and turned to look at Marcus. "Find me a lake."

They moved rapidly away each helicopter in different directions to attract less attention. And Wufei started breathing in and deep. He felt pressure lift from his spine and allowed the buzz of adrenaline run over him.

He was free. He exalted in it, smiling broadly without hesitance. He looked around. All of them were. Trent was grinning ear to ear. Marcus nodded to him. "Good work."

Nine months locked up, caged like a criminal, like a menace to society. He laughed at the thought. They couldn't contain him. He didn't know what he was going to do. But he was free and cared for no one.

But Trowa had infiltrated.

He crushed the erroneous thought. No they had abandoned him long ago. The pilots had left him to rot. No hope, no thought. Marcus motioned to that they were nearing the lake that Wufei requested. He turned and looked down at the teen lying on the floor. Trent was watching him closely. Wufei slapped Trowa across the face on the other side where his cheek wasn't forming a bruise.

Green eyes started fluttering as he came back to consciousness. Wufei grabbed him by the front of his uniform and hauled him towards the side of the aircraft sliding open the hatch door. He looked out. They were fifty feet up and hovering over a blue lake. Wufei looked at the land around him a site he did not know he would see again. He hauled Trowa out over the edge holding him by his shirt. His green eyes went wide as he realized what was happening and tried to move his hands futilely. They were still cuffed.

Wufei glared down at him, and Trowa protested, "Wufei!" It was a plea. For mercy, for logic, for sanity, for aid.

Wufei shook his head once. Short and crisply. He pulled Trowa closer, till their faces were two inches apart, "You left me to decay, with only my abilities to free me. I give you the same."

And he let go, watching Trowa fall into the blue water below.

He turned not bothering to see if the boy surfaced. "Let's go."

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TBC...

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Well there you have it! Wufei is free! And Trowa is drowning? WHAT?

Hmmm. I must consult my plot bunnies. Which means I need to feed them reviews. Please!

No one likes an angry plot bunny.

Thanks!

Silverserpent


	16. Chapter 16

Hey there! Thank you for the reviews that I received from the last chapter. They are all very helpful to keep me motivated. My plot bunnies enjoyed munching on them. Some of you are either psychic or think the same way I do. . Which freaks me out.

Anyways! If you want a funnier story, I would suggest dating 101, which I am also updating on a weekly basis Much like this one. I thought I could have a dark on and a lighter on to satisfy my moods. Also I apologize for this chapter being one of the shorter ones. I am in the middle of finals for the next two weeks. but at least it's an update!

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Ch 16

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The dark hole of an apartment was dimly lit except for a medical kit and a cot in the bedroom a desk in the living room area and a cup, plate and set of chopsticks in the kitchen. It had sat like that for a while. Nothing changing within, the owner had obviously not been home in a while. There was an alarm that looked more than standard next to the door, which was an interesting addition to the otherwise lacking apartment, especially considering that there was nothing notable to worry about for theft.

It had a silence to it. Not a peaceful one, not a crypt -like one either. Just oppressive silence. The rattle of keys in the door change that and the man who had walked in after that hit the alarm codes rapidly in quick succession.

He shut the door locking the locks and moved slowly and setting his bag next to the desk. Grabbing the medical kit he moved to the bathroom and switched on the lights. Deep blue eyes glanced around making sure nothing had changed in his absence and began peeling his clothes off slowly. Heading to the bathroom he used the sink to wash out the wound on his upper arm that was bleeding; it was the torn skin of shrapnel wound. Nothing had been imbedded, but the gash was big enough for concern.

He pulled out silk thread sutures and a needle and began popping it through slowly fatigue making his hand tremble and shake. He was aware that he could not keep up his effort for very much longer. He had hit mostly dead ends. The fighting was non-stop. And his emotions were...

He shook his head quickly, derailing thoughts again and ran a hand through his short, brown hair. It was sticky with sweat and grime; a shower would be good later. He needed to keep his limited functioning body operational, he knew that he had pushing its boundaries lately, but didn't seem to find the drive to care as much.

He set about moving as quickly as he could get his fingers to move and began pushing the needle through his skim. Up, around through, up around through, up around through...

When he finally finished he glanced in the mirror. He was looking much thinner than normal and dirtier. Perhaps he should shower first...

No he had priorities.

He trudged heavier then he normally would and pulled out his laptop that was looking more scuffed as time went on. He peeled it open and checked his Preventer inbox first. Commander Une said she received the mission reports from the L-three rebel faction that he was sent in to dismantle. She also sent a note specifically to rest up and recoup. She would need him again in two days if he felt fit enough to function. He sighed and replied, 'Acceptable.' and hit send.

He needed a lot more time to recuperate all the damage done over the last several months, but he was needed, by everyone. Besides, he wasn't able to sleep that well anymore anyways. Sally had given him sleeping aids, but he detested the idea of taking them especially if he needed to be operational in such short return times. He couldn't take them on missions. It was too high of a mental faculty's inhibitor to be worth the risk. Lack of sleep out-weighted that danger.

He checked over his personal secured pilot network and found no new messages. Scanning news feeds, there was plenty of information, but nothing he was looking for.

He opened a folder on the desktop of his computer and began his normal traces; new inmates in the prison system, their picture were being pulled up. The most recent transfer of prisoner number 503492-T popped up, but instead of it being a transfer the computer read in that the prisoner had been dropped from the system. Heero sighed softly to himself. That was the last trail that he had.

There was nothing left he could do. Prisoner number 503492-T had been removed from the international prison system. He could be anywhere and Heero didn't have any leads. Months of waiting to see if something would be different of trying to find his missing...

Heero stood up and closed the laptop. He couldn't deal with this new event. He didn't know what to do anymore.

He hobbled over to the bathroom and began running the hot water in the shower. It was time to take care of himself, for a little while at least.

He looked into the mirror in front of him and felt an overwhelming crushing emotion rise making him nauseated. He turned and dry-heaved into the toilet next to the bathroom sink. Nothing came up, but stomach acid. The foul taste burned on his tongue, but Heero was well used to it by now. He stepped into the shower and spit once before letting the hot water cover him. He briefly used the soap and shampoo on his skin, before stepping out. His clothes were in the bag, so he went over and pulled a pair of sweats.

He should eat something. He knew he should. But he couldn't bring himself to grab one of the protein bars out of his bag. Instead he walked over to the cot and lay down sweats sitting next to him and waited for sleep to come.

He had lost all trace of Wufei Chang. And he was just so tired.

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Heero awoke abruptly after three hours of sleep. It wasn't uncommon for him anymore to not sleep for long. He did not know if it was a hang up from the war or his...feelings that had been plaguing him since Wufei had disappeared from all contact and visitation rights that a prisoner in his position was allowed to have.

He grabbed a protein bar out of his bag and chewed on it absently as he began running his security camera patch through on the jails that didn't have closed circuits. In the back of his mind he knew that this would lead him nowhere. The only prisons that had open camera feeds were low security prisons and there was no way someone who was meant to disappear would be there.

He surreptitiously checked his secured email that the other pilots were all networked into. Nothing. Trowa had been on a top mission from Une and Quatre assured him it was of utmost importance. Quatre had been working non-stop with the Une as the main coordinator of mission planning and outlines. He also still maintained the figure head position at WEI in case he needed those political and economic ties.

Duo had his feelers out in the underworld, but at the same time they were slowly being cut off from one angle or another. Either because his informants were executed under hostile take-overs from other gangs or simply because it was starting to get around that he may be in league with the Preventers. It put him at risk. He was currently on the fence of which way to go. If he stayed in the middle much longer it would be a risk that was no longer tolerable to his safety level.

And Wufei had been missing for nine months.

Heero watched the forms on his screen move around. Local security wardens to all of the cameras he could patch into. No one new worth looking into. He had a facial recognition program running on the past recordings, but nothing came up.

Heero opened the files on his computer to the prison that was the initial point it was in the northern center of North America. Mainly flat lands with scattered woods. He pulled up dossiers on all the current prison guards that were working in the facility. Mainly retired-police officers and ex-Oz. Soldiers that couldn't integrate without holding a gun at some point throughout their day.

The warden Alan Scott was someone of interest and yet he appeared to have no connections to the Gundam pilots or Wufei in any way. Heero was frustrated. He was never the investigator of the group. He just wasn't attuned to the finer nuances it took to read people's reactions. He was aware that he was told to follow his own emotions, but he didn't understand the drives he felt more than half the time. The hesitation and the need to find Wufei either...

He shut his laptop and sat in the dim room. The colony day-light cycle was seeping under the blinds. He took another bite of his bar. He needed to do something. In the past it would have been the gym, or eating food that was the correct nutrient content and caloric content he needed. Or cleaning his gun, but that was usually what he did to prep for missions.

But he couldn't just sit here.

He flipped open his cell phone and hit the number four on speed dial. -Quatre here.-

"I need a mission."

There was an exasperated sigh on the other end. -Heero I know that we are swamped and could use you, but you has not had adequate downtime regardless. You just got back!-

"Irrelevant."

-Irrelevant my left foot, Heero. I read your mission report that was a highly dangerous situation you took out.-

"I am operational."

-No.-

Heero fell silent as did the boy on the other end of the line. And he tried the one thing he knew seemed to always work with Quatre, "Please."

The silence rang on for thirty seconds and then -Fine. I'll have your next mission brief for you within an hour. You are not set to move for three days, it should allow our team to get you proper intelligence on the case.-

"Hn." Heero hung up the phone. It would allow him to concentrate on something. To focus on getting adequately healed for the next mission. To forget other things...

That was the most appealing part.

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TBC...

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Alright! New viewpoint. Reviews are craved like something that is always craved. :)

-Silverserpent


	17. Chapter 17

Heero was alerted by the beep from his laptop indicating mail again. He glared at it across the room as he was flipping through the mission specs. He had been holed up in the apartment on the L3 colony planning for, ordering supplies for and waiting for his mission to begin. He was focused and ready to go. It allowed him to not think about...things and rest a little more then he would otherwise.

The beep was probably Quatre again telling him to take it easy and that he didn't need to go out on a mission again so soon despite the raging riots and rebellion groups attempting to shatter the fragile peace that they all attained. It seemed to be a never ending surge against them, especially when certain heads within the ESUN government had been bought by some of the sieging groups they were fighting against.

Obligation of the possibility of it being mission related drew Heero from his spot by the window over to the open laptop on the desk. Heero felt his heart stop in his chest. It wasn't from Quatre. It was a news alert that was picked up by his program. There had been a jail break. From the initial jail that Wufei had been imprisoned in. Heero clicked quickly to open the article.

No news on which inmates were missing, two security officers within the prison were dead, many were injured. No mention of which prisoners escaped. His phone rang and he lifted it to his ear while still scanning the article.

-Did you see?- It was Quatre.

"Hn." Heero was still scanning hoping for more details to rise out of the text on the page. Although he felt it, he wanted proof. No one would devise a breakout on this scale and succeed, except a Gundam pilot. Except Wufei.

-You are being pulled off of your mission effective immediately. You are expected earth-side a.s.a.p. Rendezvous outside of Detroit, in the new order sector.-

Heero paused, "You have confirmation he was there?"

-Negative. But Trowa was infiltrating and is now missing. We're going to find him. I'll let you know if we hear anything.-

Heero hung up quickly. That was the mission that they sent Trowa out on. Une and Quatre should have told him. He sent a quick email to Duo about the prison break and plans to go to earth closed his laptop grabbed his bag and files. Re-armed the apartment and shut the door quickly.

The apartment was silent and dark again.

The pick-up was by another Preventer agent at the shuttle port outside of Detroit. Detroit had once again fallen to ruin post-war. It had a boom of sorts when colony manufacturing was at its height then as production was moved to space to make it cheaper it had fallen to dereliction again. It appeared that this giant meca of a city on the North American continent would be hard to find good times. Especially since it had been bombed out so many times during the war. The new order sector was a walled in city filled with police force, Preventer operations and some headquarters for certain government branches for area. It was a military base established by the Alliance that had been converted into a new pocket of law.

Heero looked out the window as they drove along. The driver had stopped trying to talk to him after the first, "Hn." and glare. At least he was not dumb enough to prattle. It was run down cold and grey outside. A light snow dusting covered the road, while the dark greying snow was piled up along the road way. As they approached the walls of the base, Heero saw the Preventers logo mounted. This was one of the most heavily military looking bases and he was not surprised.

The Preventers did not have big budgets to spend on décor and shiny new buildings. They preferred to spend the money on armored vehicles and vests. It was a better allocation of funds. Heero agreed. Some politicians did not. But what they wanted did not matter nearly as much, because at the end of the day the person that was protecting them needed better equipment to do the protecting then the looks of the organization.

As the vehicle pulled up to the front of the building Heero scanned his badge quickly at the door to let himself in. It was near the four hundred hour mark, about fifteen hours since he had been alerted to the incident. He made his way quickly to the elevator badged in and placed his thumb on the fingerprint scanner and pressed floor eight.

Une and Quatre would be waiting for him with all the details they knew ready to go. Hopefully information on Wufei would be there. He needed to find Wufei for his own sanity. To talk with him, to tell him he was wrong to have planned that arrest against him.

The doors opened and Heero headed straight to Une's office, where both Quatre and Une would be. They looked up and Quatre spoke, "I'm glad you made it to the shuttle port alright. We've been waiting to hear from Trowa, but nothing has come down the lines yet. It is unknown at this time what his status is."

Une nodded. "So far all of the inmates that have been rounded up did not include Wufei. There appeared to be several groups within the prison that were organized enough to get out easily and away quickly. We have word of cars evacuating the area, so prisoners could have left via that route. But we also had word of helicopters leaving from the area. So there is a strong possibility of not finding them. I doubt they would stay in the helicopters very long. It draws too much attention."

Heero nodded, "Prisoner list?"

Une shook her head. "Not yet. We've requested it as I have been monthly for the last nine months, but it is not there. It is possible that he wasn't there, but we don't know. I am more concerned that Trowa is not checking in."

"Why was I not informed of this move to have Trowa infiltrate the facility?" Heero glowered at both of them, waiting for the answer.

Quatre looked at him as Une looked at the papers on her desk. He finally said, "We felt that you were too close to the subject matter to remain informed. Plus this was a matter of great secrecy. To have a government agent infiltrated a government facility… it doesn't look good. It looks more like a possible interference in the system. We had people on a need to know basis."

Heero frowned, "I could have done the infiltration."

Une shook her head. "No. We all know that Trowa is much better at these operations out of the group of you. You all have your strong suits. And like Quatre said… I think you are too invested in the outcome of the infiltration."

"I could have done it."

Quatre shook his head, "Heero. Look at yourself. You haven't been sleeping or eating properly. Anytime you are not on a mission you've been attempting to find him in the prison system. You have your watch programs for news, which I'm sure is how you seemed unsurprised that there was a prison break when I called. You cannot maintain objectiveness which is why you were not assigned to the case."

Heero let his shoulder relax a little from the tense stance he held. He did draw the same conclusions that they did. He was not fully functional by any means. He would not have been a plausible recruit for an infiltration mission. "Now what?"

Quatre nodded, knowing that he now had accepted the truth of the statement. "Now we wait and if Trowa doesn't check in by the twenty-four hour mark we will assume he's compromised somehow. Either via abduction, injury or a blown cover and he will need extract."

Heero nodded at that. He could handle this. "Where are the schematics for the surrounding terrain of the prison?"

Une nodded to the table behind him. "We have the guards that have been found. We have had Trowa's identity folder pulled for this mission. So far his name has not come up as a found prison guard. We believe he is not in the facility and is now outside of it somewhere. Via helicopter he couldn't have been moved anywhere outside a fifty mile radius in the first half hour. I don't think they would want to keep him. In the car, they would be more likely to keep him as a hostage in case of pick up. One of the vans has been picked up, but there were no hostages inside."

Heero nodded and began pulling out the maps to the lands. Mainly flat some woods, some lakes. "Do we have a direction the helicopters went?"

"North, northwest." The swat team saw them as they were flying over."

Heero nodded and looked in that direction. Two lakes some woods. More woods further on. He brought the map over to the desk. "I think he would have been dropped here or here." He said pointing at the two lakes.

Quatre looked it over and nodded. Une frowned, "Why would you say that?"

Heero looked up at her. He forgot sometimes that she was not as well versed in operations strategy. She was the organizer, not the one that carried out the mission. "If the helicopters took him they would look for a place to drop him without having to land and a lake would be a good enough option for survival for Wufei to use as a drop point for his prisoner."

Une nodded, "That's assuming that Trowa was taken prisoner by Wufei. That he was at the prison."

Heero nodded, "The only person that could take Trowa prisoner would be Wufei. And Wufei would know that it is too risky to go by car. Therefore if by helicopter he would have dropped him in the lake. He could not have commandeered the helicopters on his own. So bringing Trowa would be a poor choice. The other inmates would be opposed to having a guard on their flight out. They would want to kill him. So Wufei would drop him at the lakes for safety."

Quatre nodded agreeing with the statement and went about looking at the prison lists. No one had been transferred out of that prison for about ten months. Many had been transferred in but none had been transferred out. The prison had given them the lists of prisoners that were there, but Wufei's name was never on it. Not since the first prison roster.

Heero sat at an available space and pulled out his laptop to see if any other information could be pulled about the prison. He had all the schematics on it that he could pull from his earlier research into the facilities and the possible locations that they would have put Wufei. "When is the twenty four hour horizon?"

Quatre answered, "Noon today."

Heero nodded and turned back to his computer. The news reports were vague, just going over a list of prisoners that were captured so far. Telling locals to not answer doors during this time as these were highly dangerous criminals. They said not be concerned as local authorities were already on site and conducting a plan to obtain the remaining loose prisoners that were freed during the break out. This was not informative. The news branches were just trying to assist in the minimizing of damages from the sudden outbreak that occurred.

The minutes ticked by. New reports were brought to Une's office on the incident. Updates on those that had been recaptured and guards that had been found dead. Quatre did the analysis for it and so far no sign of Trowa or Wufei. Heero kept going over the prison security and what they knew. It had Wufei's marks all over it. Most people that had been in that prison were not organized enough to set up such an effort. He had to have been in there. The government had been lying to him this entire time.

Heero glared and felt his jaw tighten. Whoever was behind this was going to be brought down. It had to happen. There was no way that this level of deception would be allowed in a peacetime government that he worked so hard to build with the other pilots. With one of the ones who was ripped away and hidden.

As they approached the four hour horizon time point Heero looked over at Une who nodded tightly to him. He called to transport in the facilities and requested a helicopter be prepped on the pad for takeoff and immediate departure clearance. He asked for weapons, cuffs, ammunition and guns. Along with basic field prep and a pilot prepped on location coordinates. He could have flown the helicopter himself, but he wanted to be free in case of any need for quick action and gun fire.

In case they found Wufei.

As they approached the two hour mark Heero slammed his laptop shut and looked at Quatre and Une who looked up startled. "I think we should go."

Une began with, "He still has two hour till check time. It is possible that he will still reach a means of communication."

Heero glared at Quatre who stepped in saying, "Lady Une, I think this may be one of the few times that we throw protocol out the window and go now. He would have checked in by now if he could. It simply has not happened."

Une sighed and then nodded quickly, "Let's get going."

They all left the building and headed for the black tarmac where a helicopter was ready to go engine on already. They ducked in and Heero surveyed the equipment that was ready for them inside and nodded to the pilot to give him the go ahead. They were ascending quickly and the pilot headed towards the first destination. The lake that was closest to the prison. If Trowa wasn't there they would check out the second lake and then head back to the prison and check the area themselves.

Thirty minutes later they arrived at the lake and touched down. Heero jumped out first and looked around. No one in immediate sight. He nodded for Une to come down and Quatre hopped out behind her. They moved away from the blades and were moving quietly towards the banks of the sands. Scanning, there did appear to be unusual patterns in the bank, but no foot prints. Something had been dragged away though, so perhaps the prints were disrupted.

Heero looked at the tree line and waited. Quatre was looking where Heero was to. He had come to the same conclusion. They both walked towards the trees and began spreading across. Heero froze as he saw a hand on the ground from behind a tree. Raising his gun he motioned to Quatre to follow in his direction. He looped around. It was a prisoner by uniform and unconscious. Quatre exclaimed, "Trowa!" And leapt past a group of bushes. Heero cuffed the prisoner first and then came around to Trowa.

He was awake and his eyes were tracking and he seemed to be getting up on his own. His hands were cuffed together and the right hand side of his face was purple-blue colored bruise. It looked like his cheek bone had been broken.

Heero came over and helped lift him to his feet. He was wet and looked tired. They moved him over to the helicopter and Heero came back for the prisoner and tied him to a chair in the back of the copter for transport. He returned to Trowa who was being checked over by Quatre and Une when they lifted off the ground heading back to the Preventer office. Une placed an ice pack to Trowa's face and held it there while he closed his eyes and leaned back. "What happened?" She asked. It was a tone that was attempting to be soothing. It was strange coming from their commander.

Trowa cracked open his green eye on the side of his face that wasn't swollen and whispered, "He was there. Wufei was there all along."


	18. Chapter 18

Alright people! This is the second update in two weeks. Be proud! It's a little more cumbersome with less action, but still it has it's place in the story.

What I would like from all of you are reviews to tell me what you think! A lot of people seem to read the story and not review which is slightly disappointing. Even if it's a 'yo' That's not bad. It keeps me motivated to write. And that lets me continue updating on a weekly-ish basis.

For those that do review. I heart you very much. If nothing else I would give you candy if I ever met you.

Sorry for the half-rant. On with the fic!

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Ch18

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Heero was waiting outside the operating room for Trowa to come out of surgery. A quick X-ray had shown that his cheek bone had been broken and forced inwards. He was in with the surgeon who was resetting it with an injectable compound that would easily repair the damage with minimal change to the bone structure of his face. The swelling would take some time to dissipate as would the discoloration, but eventually he would be the same Trowa they all recognized. Heero's current task was to obtain Trowa's report on the events and to find out how he had encountered Wufei. He had volunteered for the task after all his months of attempting to locate Wufei; he wanted to know any pertinent information as quickly as possible. It would make it easier to find the reason, someone to put in his place behind bars.

In the interim Une had taken command of the prison break investigation from local authorities citing that several of the escaped prisoners were of interest to global peace and were in fact placed there by the Preventers. She was having a selection of staff pull every single file from the last year or so they could find, both physical and electronic, to go through and see what was happening within the prison system. Also so she could compile a list of prisoners who were recaptured or not recaptured within the facilities. The final information was a list of all those who had worked within the prison for the last year and a half. Any information would be of obvious help in locating those that had fled during the escape as well as locating Wufei. They had been denying that he was in the facility for months. This obviously incorrect now that Trowa had seen him.

Quatre was busy with the political end of things, contacting Relena and other representatives they had that had been attempting to aid in the search for Wufei over the last year to add the new information that he had been hidden within the same prison he had been initially assigned. Quatre had been hitting walls within the government over the last year, not specifically because the people he talked to were interested in keeping Wufei in prison, but because they did not understand why he was putting in such effort to find this one person when they had a world to rehabilitate from years of fighting and war. When someone presented that as an idea it made sense. Why bother with one person in the grand scheme of things? But Wufei had been their comrade and brother. Duo called him a friend. It may not be important in the grand scheme of things. One person did not necessarily change the outcome of the universe. That had been their reasoning.

It was ironic that they would say such a thing when Heero was in the conference once and had been a key factor in the war. After all, earth would have been completely decimated and left for dust if it had not been for Heero Yuy when Libra fell. It was strange how quickly people forgot the impact one person could make in the grand scheme of things.

Heero maintained his quiet glare when he had heard the man speaking, but hadn't left. Just stood there silently as they discussed things with an air of philosophy. That had been five months and thirteen days ago.

Heero saw through the window of the operating room that the doctor was moving away from the operating table and the staff was cleaning up. Trowa was wheeled out of the room and already seemed to be waking up from the mild sedative. The only signs of surgery were two small crosses of stiches below his right eye with a trickle of blood running from them. The surgeon spoke to him and said, "He's doing well. Everything went fine. He will be waking up shortly." Heero nodded to him and followed the staff as they placed him in the recovery room. He would wait for Trowa to wake up enough to get the details of what happened.

Duo had already been called back from the colonies. He was going to be needed they were almost positive. He was on a shuttle inbound for the Detroit post. There were plans that needed to be discussed and with the new escapees he would no doubt need to become involved using his many contacts.

Trowa began drifting awake and blinking his good eye open. The other side was well swollen shut. Heero shifted closer on that side and stated, "Surgery went well your face will look better after a while." Heero automatically handed him a cup of water swirl in his mouth and spit into. He knew well the uncomfortable gooey-dryness that your mouth felt after an operation or unconsciousness of any kind.

Trowa spit into the cup and it came out pinkish. He had been bleeding. Probably had a tooth knocked loose. At least none had come out. He got a fresh cup and swallowed it with a wince and sat up a little further in the bed. He was ready to talk.

"What happened?"

Trowa scanned his eye over Heero ready for the usual abruptness. "I was assigned to infiltrate the prison. I had been planning to anyways, but Une asked me to wait a while longer while Quatre finished out all the possible political pathways that we could have validly used as a means of finding Wufei. When all of those failed I got the go ahead for this mission." He paused and closed his eye. It seemed to be easier that way. He was obviously still tired from what happened.

"I entered into the trainee program three months prior to yesterday and I've been going through all the training. And finally Une had enough assistance from someone, Relena I'd guess, to switch the guards. I was sent in as an undercover operative to find out if Wufei had been there all along."

Heero knew most of this, but still sat quietly, while Trowa sorted through the events in his head. It was hard to move in and out of cover so quickly if you were far immersed in a character for long term operations. Almost like a second skin or personality would be covering over you. It was not healthy to have to switch out so suddenly. "I was on my first day of assignment as a trainee and I didn't think that I would have any chance of getting into the prison that day so I maintained my post in the visitor wing. The alarms started blaring shortly after lunch. I heard gun fire in the corridor outside the visitor area. I was not expecting the surge of prisoners that came through, but thought I would be able to handle any situation, but I saw him..."

He inhaled deeply and forced him to relax again, "I saw him and I froze. It had been so long since I last saw him and he had been there the entire time. It looks as if he had been the one to organize the break out. He..." Trowa paused. "He promptly punched me into unconsciousness and I awoke in a helicopter with him and a few other people in it. He took me over a lake and he dropped me into it. Handcuffed."

Heero nodded. He had guessed that Wufei had been the one to organize the escape and caught Trowa. No one else could have really done it as well as it had been carried out.

"From there I was able to get to the surface and shore. I stayed there thinking that that was where you would find me. At some point another inmate found me and tried to take me out. He approached on the side of my face that was already badly swollen, but I was able to take him out after he got a couple of hits in. Fighting one eyed and handcuffed is not the easiest. And that's where you found me."

Heero nodded. "What did Wufei's status seem to you?"

Trowa was quiet for a while as he thought about the question Heero was asking. He knew what he was asking, but the information he wanted was something different entirely. Trowa started with, "I didn't check his physical status because I was so focused on the fact that he was there in front of me. I was more looking at his face at that point." He swallowed and blinked his eye open at Heero, "I think that he was angry. There was the possibility that he was trying to protect me. But... It just didn't seem to fit." Trowa's voice faded at the end as he was trying to think things through.

"Would you recognize the people on the helicopter if you saw pictures of the inmates?" Heero asked as a last minute question. Trowa nodded on the pillow. He looked like he was going to be drifting off again soon.

Heero got up and left the room in search of Une. He wanted to know what she had found and report what Trowa had said to him. Wufei would have known that Trowa was there to help as soon as he saw him. That meant that he would have helped in some way. That was where the lake drop came in. Wufei was trying to leave Trowa in a safe place. That had to be it.

Trowa was just imagining the disregard for him.

Une was in her office with Quatre. She had brought in a table for all the data sheets that they had been getting from the field team all afternoon. Heero came to report what Trowa had said post-surgery and his status. He walked into a flurry of activity as Quatre had pulled two people to assist with the filing and many others were wandering in and out bringing new files or updates from the site. Heero stood off to the side, before heading to an administrative office to type out a summary. They would not have time to hear his limited report. There wasn't much variance from what he thought had happened or would have happened either.

Once he printed it out and delivered it to Quatre he asked if there was anything else he could do. Quatre looked up at him and said calmly, "Heero we are still trying to compile what we have and cross reference it. We don't have any other tasks that need to be taken care of at this time and we should wait for Duo to give the full report of actions anyways. You look awful. Go to one of the Preventer's temporary housing units and take a break. I'll call you if we get any leads."

With that Heero was dismissed from the room and from attention. Une was still on the phone and more people came in carrying files from trials and individual inmates. Heero exited quickly and found his way to the quarters that Preventers had set aside for agents that were not living in the area and need to stay overnight. He was given a key by the staff there and set up his laptop in the quiet room in the corner. He still heard cars moving off and on the premises that were moving to and from the prison site. It was close to nineteen hundred hours so anyone remaining in the compound was with the Preventers.

Heero surveyed the simple room with a desk in the corner a bed and a bathroom attached through a door. It was functional which Heero appreciated. He opened his laptop and logged into his secured wartime email network that all the Gundam pilots were on.

He composed a brief email to Wufei:

_Glad you are out. Contact me ASAP._

And he left his phone numbers in the email. Heero nodded. At least now Wufei would return the message and he would be able to tell him everything that had gone wrong. How he wasn't supposed to be there for that long. How he was indeed at fault for sending him there in the first place.

Heero shut his laptop satisfied with his message and lay back on his bed. He drifted off to sleep listening to the engines of field teams coming to and from the base. Tomorrow there would be more information and a plan of action. He would be ready.

It was the first time in months he was able to sleep through the night.

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TBC...

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So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed. Not as action packed as usual as I said, but still some possible interesting points for future plot movement.

Now please review! Because I dont' like ranting. I'll beg, but I won't like it. Please please please please please please please please please please please please...

-Silverserpent


	19. Chapter 19

Another quick update in a week! I'm so proud of myself!

I want to thank everyone who reviewed what's been happening so far! It really does help me type quicker and figure out were the story is going. Which is of course important. So THANK YOU!

ON with the fic...

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Ch19

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The next morning Heero awoke to a knock on the door of his dormitory. He was up and alert immediately. Perhaps they had information on Wufei and wanted him to be notified immediately. He went to the door and opened it to find Duo standing there. He was quiet just looking Heero over before he stepped into the room and hugged him. He let go and moved back. "Is it true? Have they found him?" Heero nodded and stepped out of the way to let Duo into the room. The light from the sunrise was beginning to seep between the slats of the blinds into his room. Heero took a moment and registered the fact that he had been able to sleep through the entire night.

It had been a long time since that had happened.

Duo was staring at the rays that were on the floor as well, "So what news do we have?"

Heero sat down next to Duo on the bed and said, "He was in the prison all along and led the prison break. As of last night we have no idea where he is. Trowa just had his face reconstructed last night." Duo exhaled sharply looking at Heero, waiting for an explanation. "On the way out, Wufei punched him in the face. It cracked his cheek bone. There will be more news this morning when we go in." Heero glanced at his clock. There were three hours before the morning meeting.

Duo lay back on his bed to wait. He had been a lot quieter over the last couple months. In the beginning of all of this he had been up beat and voraciously looking for signs and traces of Wufei from his underground connections, but slowly as every single trail had led him nowhere or on hunts that evaporated to nothing Duo had slowly gotten a little quieter. He would probably return to his boisterous self soon enough, but right now Duo seemed as tired as Heero felt.

Heero booted up his laptop and went over his work email. There were several new work emails all listed as important. He had expected it. Looking over the subject most were about the jail break, but several more were about m isssions that he was starting to be assigned to againg. Just because this happened did not mean that the rebellions, riots and threats to peace decided to give them all a break. It was a sad fact that Heero was all to aware of.

He logged into his wartime email network.

There were no messages waiting for him from Wufei. He had a tiny spark of hope, but perhaps he had simply not been able to get to a secured connection yet.

Heero went to his news program, which was full of new headlines for the recent breakout obviously. It was listing a couple more of the inmates caught, which Heero would confirm at the meeting today. The next article he clicked open and he paused.

There was a picture of Wufei at the initial check in from nine months ago. There were others of course, many who Heero recognized, but Wufei's picture was at the top. The headline read, 'Dangerous inmates escape'. Heero didn't quite know what to do. This was a huge violation of Preventer investigations. He picked up his cell phone and dialed up Quatre. An exhausted voice answered on the other end. "Quatre Winner speaking."

"Did you know that the mass media somehow has released Wufei's photo?" Heero shot out. His mind was racing. Someone sent these files in to the media for release. That meant that someone had known he was there and wanted him to be captured badly enough to go over the Preventers heads.

Heero heard a dull, "Shit." On the other end of the phone which confirmed his belief that Quatre knew nothing about the photo release to the public. There was a pause as Heero waited. "What channel is it?"

"The ESUN news network." Heero heard Quatre swear again and a garbled noise in the background. Quatre was silent on the other end as Heero waited. Finally there was a strong, "We will discuss this today when we all get together. Have you heard from Duo at all?"

"He's here."

Quatre nodded, "Good. We're moving the meeting time up two hours. We have a lot more to discuss then we initially planned on. See you soon."

Heero shut the phone and continued scanning the news networks. It looked as though that was the group that had released the initial story. Therefore whoever got the information was somewhere at that network.

Heero returned to his work email for the remaining hour, before he shut it down and tapped Duo on the shoulder to wake him up. The braided boy had fallen asleep shortly after setting his head down on the bed. He stretched and as Heero had predicted he smiled up at him, which had been a marked improvement already from his behavior an hour before. He smiled up at Heero and said, "Well at least we know he's out and free."

Heero nodded. It was a fair assessment. But somehow that didn't seem to ease the tension that he had felt in his body since Wufei had yelled at him in the shuttle. He now felt as though he had betrayed Wufei not only for the initial capture, but for all the months that had gone by when he should not have been in the prison facilities. Heero had been the one who planned a way to put him there. It really was only supposed to be for at most those three months. But it had obviously expanded.

They headed off down the hallway and up towards Une's office. At this point there was too much information to bother moving the investigation set up from there into a designated conference space. Heero and Duo entered slightly earlier to see Une sitting at her desk nursing a cup of coffee trying to keep her head off the desk.

She looked up at them, but Heero had already moved to the wall where there was several prison staff photographs taped up with notes attached to each one. The table was cluttered under the reports, trials and rap sheets of all the prisoners.

Duo nodded to Une out of courtesy and took a seat. He knew he would get the information soon enough, but Heero liked to get the knowledge as quickly as possible. What had happened that caused them to be unable to find Wufei for months? Someone had to be covering it up.

Quatre and Trowa soon filed in and Duo jumped out of his seat and ran in front of Quatre, "Trowa what the fuck happened to your face?"

He stated, "Wufei happened to it." And that was the end of that conversation. Quatre quickly briefed Duo on the breakout as what Trowa had reported the day before and Duo was very upset by it.

Heero still threw out, "He still may have been doing that as an act. We do not know what he plans on doing and he has not yet responded to my email." The others looked up at him at that, "I sent out an email on the secured network that we had during the war asking him to contact as soon as possible." Quatre shook his head.

"Heero we have new information. One of the guards on the roof as they escaped knew who had fired at them and killed two. It was Wufei. He went directly for a kill shot on all, but missed on the last. We even have video of it." Quatre went to the folder closest to hum and pulled out several pictures and handed them to Heero, "We even have surveillance feed of him as he's coming out."

Duo interjected, "I want to see the footage. Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to find the nuances of a situation." Une turned one of the screens in her office on and brought up the surveilance.

Une said, "We still haven't figured out how he knocked out the medical wing cameras, but the rest of the systems seemed fairly intact." And hit play. They watched the feed of him taking down the guards and rushing through the halls shouting orders at different men. The move into the visitor's room had been a violent one. They saw the instant that Wufei recognized Trowa with a moment's pause and then watched as he beat him to unconsciousness. Duo exhaled loudly. They then watched as Wufei held Trowa upright and the cameras switched feeds to see Wufei shoot head shots of two out of three victims.

They were silent for a minute before Une cleared her throat and said, "We believe this is enough to judge that Wufei should now be considered a dangerous individual and have posted him on out person of interest list."

Heero growled "He could still be acting in his and Wufei's best interest."

Une raised her eyebrow at him and said, "He killed members of the facility without thought to wound instead. It makes him a liability."

Heero growled back, "It was the most efficient means of escaping a dangerous situation."

Trowa cleared his throat, pausing what was quickly a disintegrating situation, "He used me as a shield. The punching did not bother me. It was that he used me as a bullet shield."

Heero looked over the image on screen and there was no denying Wufei's first emerging from the outer door. He had Trowa propped up in front of him. Duo spoke up, "But perhaps he was betting that they would not shoot their own. Trowa was in prison uniform. Wufei had have known that they would not actively try to kill one of their own."

Quatre nodded. "Yes that is true, but we won't know until we find him."

They were all silent for a moment. But they knew that other things needed to be addressed.

"Alright so problems that have risen for this situation. We now know that Wufei was being held this entire time without public knowledge of his case for what appeared was going to be for an indefinite amount of time. Right now we have no idea who or why." Quatre said. He looked at all of them and they shifted acknowledging the need to progress.

"A secondary problem I see is that a lot of the prison staff members are now dead. When the prisoners rioted and escaped, not all of them were informed that it was a break out and instead went around the jail doing as they pleased until the local swat team went in and stopped their actions. We can speak with the warden and the doctor and a few of the guards, but those guards are currently undergoing medical treatment for injuries or post-traumatic stress."

Heero frowned. There were not many leads to the actual prison apparently. Une saw his face and stated, "I want it known right now that I will be personally heading the investigation into this prison myself. I will keep each of you in the loop, including how Wufei's picture has been leaked to the media. But unfortunately right now we have a problem that is much bigger than that." She sighed and looked down at her hands. "In case you have not been able to familiarize with the list of prisoners that are still at large we have a serious problem on our hands. There were a lot of dangerous men in that prison that have just been released. And considering it is past the forty eight hour mark it is unlikely that we will find any of them in the immediate vicinity. The ones I'm most concerned with are those who were leaders and organizers." Quatre pulled ten pictures from the table and handed them to Heero first.

He recognized most of them and he came to the last one. "This is our weapons dealer from the war."

Duo peaked over his shoulder. "Well I'll be damned. Marcus." He whispered.

Heero handed the pictures to Trowa who point out two of the men in the stack. "These two were definitely in helicopter that Wufei dropped me out of. Marcus and this one, Trent."

Quatre paused. "Are you sure?"

Trowa nodded and Quatre took the pictures back, "Alright I'm going to have you go over more pictures once we have collected them all. We are still missing some information for prisoner records. It may help to know who Wufei left with."

Heero spoke up, "So if we are not here to track Wufei, what is the purpose of this meeting?"

Une spoke up at this point, "Heero, I want you to maintain your duties as usual. We still have lots of problems that are flaring up that need your particular expertise. As soon as Trowa has fully recovered, he will be doing the same."

Trowa spoke up from his seat, "I am functional now. I can assist in Heero's missions." Une shook her head with a look of both exasperation and admiration on his face.

"Trowa your face is still swollen and purple and I doubt the injection you received has fully set yet anyways. I suggest you take a break." She looked at Quatre and said, "As per usual Quatre will work with me to head investigations and track down any information pertaining both to Wufei and the remaining criminals that are still free from this catastrophe."

Duo snorted, "I told you it would be disastrous to attempt to hold Wufei ten months ago, when you were doing the initial planning to get him to head to the trial quietly, but no, you didn't listen to me at all."

Une shook her head and said. "Well Duo I have a request for you. Since we now know that we are not going to be able to find any of these men by searching the area we are now going to need intelligence from the inside. I know that you were leaning more towards going completely clean, but we need someone on the inside. I would like you to fully commit to the criminal world at this point and find the people we need to find."

Duo stood there looking at her and said, "You're kidding right?"

She shook her head and Quatre put in, "We need information on these guys and it may lead us to Wufei's whereabouts."

Duo frowned and his anger was beginning to emerge, "That is ridiculous. You know that he is not going to be found unless he wants to be. He's a Gundam pilot! Don't you know how easy it is for any of us to disappear without a trace?"

Une spoke up again and said, "We of course promised full immunity if you are ever caught in a compromising situation." It was weak, but it was one of the few safety nets that would be offered if Duo went that way.

They were all silent when Duo kicked a chair into the wall across Une's office. "Fine. Expect reports via the war time network as often as I have information. I expect information via that route as well. Send me the list you want me to find as soon as you can. I have to plan my full entry." He snorted and shook his head, "This had been fun guys. See ya."

And Duo left the office slamming the door behind him.

Heero did understand what Duo was upset about. Living a double life like he did was very difficult to do without detection and possible issues of dying because of it. And he had plans of joining the Preventers full time. Not anymore. "I still think that Wufei may contact us."

Quatre nodded at his statement and said. "It's true Heero. He may yet." But his eyes didn't look hopeful.

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TBC...

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Well there you have it. Another chapter closer to reuniting the boys or spinning off into utter disaster. We shall see! Reviews are loved and make slow fingers into typing machines!

Ciao,

Silverserpent


	20. Chapter 20

On with the fic...

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Ch 20

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The crowd was getting more restless as they waited for the governor's speech. It was a similar to the buzzing of several hives of angry bees. Signs of protest against the recent attempts to appease the locals on colony four of the L2 district were waving in time with chants. Their economy was tanking, many were starving as supply ships had not yet made it through the raids by pirates trying to pull the supplies. The Preventers were now conducting armed escorts through the particularly bad area on ships that were containing extremely valuable supplies, while most of the others were left to fend for themselves. The cost was just too high.

There had been talk of shutting down the colony entirely until they had the resources to properly sustain the population instead of letting plague and starvation run rampant. But there were of course hundreds of factors that made this impractical.

If they were to abandon the colony entirely, then it would undoubtedly be stripped for parts and scrap metal, by the same raiders and rings that were already cutting off the supply lines. Another possible problem would be that instead of stripping it for parts, it could be taken over for use as a base of operations for countless criminal networks and it would be very difficult to extricate them afterwards. It would take a full frontal scaled assault on a colony. That would only give violent flashbacks to the public about the wars they had just suffered through not long ago.

Abandoning it was not a good plan. Especially considering it would be hard to get the colonists on this particular colony to participate anyways. It didn't seem to matter that the colony was falling apart at the seams with the drug trafficking, lack of supplies, and no hope for economic rehabilitation that would be necessary to get the colony up and running. The colonists were stubborn like Duo and they called this colony, the furthest one out from earth other than the mars terraforming domes, home. They were not about to be moved by some government branch that was telling them they had to.

And now Heero was here on a concrete building looking down at the agitated masses. There had been no fighting yet today, but that was not what Heero was here to do. He scanned the crowd and spotted Trowa across the plaza in the crowd. He was searching slowly for their target.

Heero scanned the crowd further. Neither of them was on crowd control or the security detail for the governor today. They were looking for two targets from Eckpo's group which had been growing since the jailbreak in Detroit. Wufei's jail, Heero's brain automatically interjected.

Duo had been deep in the connections had decided to go with the drug running aspect, since he was more familiar with it and was therefore entrenched in the knowledge for Eckpo's group from the jail. While gun running was more of a priority, Duo did not bother trying to infiltrate there, because Marcus would recognize him instantly and he would either not advance further in the ranks or he would be dead. Most likely the latter.

Either way Duo's investigation had helped to open up a brand new set of problems for the Preventers. Apparently Eckpo and Donovan decided to work together since their time in jail. The heads were trading tips and trade routes for smuggling.

The two people that Heero and Trowa were here today to find were small fry, one from each group. This colony was too high of an asset to let sit in peace so the bosses had ordered the group to agitate the crowd into a full blown riot. If the government were to lose control that would keep their drug trafficking and human trafficking route well established with possible increases their trade levels.

And the drug trade and sex trade were definitely thriving on this colony. No matter where you went in the ESUN, both decimated and pristine rebuilt areas, those two businesses always seemed to be thriving. Heero spotted the first target close to the podium. He grabbed the throat microphone that was linked to Trowa's ear piece. "Up front off center left side of podium. Echo target acquired."

Heero watched as Trowa's weaving trajectory changed and he slowly started heading to the front of the crowd. Heero looked him over. The bruise had healed over completely and his profile showed none of the reconstructed surgery that he had done. It had taken quite a lot of time to heal. Too much time had passed since then.

Good, Trowa would be heading forward to collar that one. Heero began scanning the middle and back area of the crowd. They would split up to work the crowd better. Heero was scanning as the music came on over the noise of the crowd. The governor would be making his grand entrance soon. Looking as fast as he could, Heero spotted a tall someone near the back of the crowd who seemed to be standing quite still compared to the rest.

Heero began moving along the top of the roof trying to get a better view of the man. He could not move without confirmation. The speaker volume rose and the chanting started getting louder. The crowd moving more and Heero watched as the local forces assigned to crowd control began tensing up. The first man in the governor's task force stepped up to survey the crowd and Heero saw his target's profile. Heero moved to the side of the building and began scaling his way down using the external pipes. When he hit ground he whispered into his microphone, "Delta target acquired. Moving to intercept."

He weaved in and found the man standing quietly still he seemed to be waiting for something. The governor took this minute to step out onto the podium and Heero touched his throat mic. It would sound like a pop to Trowa. A signal.

Heero stepped forward wrenched the man's hand back and cuffed it and grabbed the man's other hand and place it into the other cuff, before he could react. He began forcing the man out of the crowd as smoothly as possible. It was difficult considering he was thrashing quite a bit and yelling, "Illegal arrest! Let me go! You have no warrant!" and trying to attract the crowd's attention. Many people stared and Heero flashed his Preventer badge at them, but most were distracted, by the presence of the governor and his attempts to calm the crowd with words.

Heero didn't bother waiting and took the man to a van that they had parked and ready. Trowa would be along shortly with his package. He forced the man to sit down in the van and restrained him with the chains intended for prisoner transport.

Trowa arrived shortly after and escorted his prisoner into the van. They slammed the door on the two identified criminals and leaned against the van quietly. Trowa spoke softly stating, "Well that went a lot smoother then the last time."

Heero had to agree. The last time they were sent into a possible riot situation to apprehend people. One got away and Heero had to take out some civilians who had taken it upon themselves to try and free Heero's target. There had been gun fire in the end, but that was because of the riot. Several buildings had caught fire. All that happened at a colony in L3 district and that was supposed to be one of the calmer colony groups. They hadn't even had their supply routes cut off. Heero ended up with a gash in the scalp, from a pipe. He would have ended up with more serious injuries if it had not been for Trowa stepping and disarming the civilian.

The security force would be having problems today. It's not like L2 would ever be a walk in the park.

They moved to the van and began driving to the shuttle port where they had a shuttle waiting for them to transport their two new prisoners. Heero was watching the buildings go by as Trowa drove and he didn't feel that mission successful adrenaline buzz that he got normally. True it was a mission and all missions were important in some way, but these two that they had apprehended were in the lower levels of the organization. They might be able to give them new information on the quickly organizing rings that were being re-established, but Heero just didn't feel they were vital to the organization.

Perhaps he really was tired and run down. Trowa had made a joke half way through his facial recovery that at least he still looked better then Heero and perhaps there was truth to that.

Heero still hadn't been sleeping much and there was still no sign of Wufei or word from Wufei. It had been seven weeks since the escape and not a word. Heero was starting to form the suspicion that Wufei indeed was not going to contact him or any of the other pilots. Where ever he had gone, he appeared to want to be left alone.

Another half of the frustration Heero attributed was that Duo seemed unable to deposit any larger information then minor players within these organizations. None of the target they had acquired knew much and they were not even people in the initial break out. Duo was definitely entrenched in Eckpo's group, but he didn't seem able to alert them to any big moves.

And another concerning factor, was the group that Marcus ran was suspiciously quiet. There were no tags or trails that would lead to them in any way. But knowing his past experience with Marcus, that man was not someone who would sit around to do nothing. He must have been planning something, but if he was it did not seem to be linked to Eckpo or Donovan's crew. At least not that Duo had sent yet. It was a good sign for Duo's survival, but a bad sign for the Preventer's intelligence network.

They pulled into the shuttle port and Heero flashed his badge at port's crew who allowed them by. Heero pulled open the back and yanked the two out. They were still struggling, but Heero tightened his grip, which caused one of them to yelp and he easily deposited them into the onboard holding cell and he settled into the pilot's seat ready for take-off. He started up the thrusters and eased out of the bay and plotted in a course for Berlin.

Une had since moved her base of operations back to Europe since there was no longer any new information to be pulled from the jail break. They were bringing these two targets in for questioning and processing.

Once the route was plugged in, Heero accessed the network and sent a message to confirm a mission successful. Trowa picked up an inbound transmission and frowned. They opened a secured channel for the message and an image of Quatre's face appeared on the screen. "Good work you two" his face was tight and not at all the calm business like Quatre that was normally projected. "Une and I were able to get the video footage released for Wufei's trial."

Heero felt himself tense up. They had tried for months to get the data. By law all trials had to be documented, even if they were closed trials. If it wasn't the verdict would be overturned and the defendant would walk free. Heero had tried to track down where the footage would be but was unable to do so.

Quatre looked grim, "I'll wait to brief you on the outcomes of this information." He shook his head and stated plainly, "Une is not pleased with this recent development."

Trowa spoke up, "That bad?"

"You'll see for yourself soon enough. I am not happy with this at all. See you soon." The connection went silent as Quatre had disconnected the screen at the other end. Heero looked over at Trowa with an eyebrow quirked.

He shrugged back. It was pointless to speculate they both knew. So with the ship headed earth side and a meeting to attend upon arrival Heero looked over at Trowa to decide who would get to sleep first.

Trowa nodded at him. Heero knew that he needed to sleep and he was contemplating the pills Sally had given him. But he felt that he was still operational. There was no need to get those out. He moved back to the bunk area of the shuttle and turned out the overhead lights as he lay down closing the curtain to the space that opened into the hallway. There wasn't enough room on board for separate rooms. It wasn't like the ship they were on was Peacemillion. Rare to have ships that big unless it was a cruiser class shuttle or a cargo shuttle.

He lay back on the foam mattress and sighed a little. He did not know if he would be able to sleep; he hadn't been able to lately anyways. All the reports from Une had been status updates with no information pertinent to finding Wufei. And there had been no contact on his email from Wufei. Duo had been right. Wufei did not want to be found. And now Duo was running silent as well… he had been for two weeks, which wasn't uncommon. But it wasn't exactly good news either.

He twitched and rolled on his side. Almost eleven months of constant searching for Wufei to tell him he was wrong and it turned out Wufei didn't even want to be near enough to hear it regardless. Heero let out a breath and tried to relax a little. Trowa was a silent presence in the adjacent cockpit, one that steadied him and grounded him a little.

Trowa's reaction to this appeared to be abnormal as far as Heero could deduce. He seemed to have taken his beating well and refused to speak of finding Wufei. Not that he didn't want to it just seemed that he believed they were going to be finding him when they were meant to find him. Some sort of fate. Heero shook his head to clear his thought once more. It was his turn to sleep. He focused on the vibration of the shuttles hulls and the texture of the scratchy fabric over the foam that was misshapen, and the stale smell of the recycled air.

It relaxed him slowly and Heero felt his eyelids closing on their own. Transport shuttles always did have a soothing quality to them reminded him of Wing's cockpit in the powered down mode. He missed how simple the war days were sometimes, when it was easy and they were all allies.

* * *

TBC

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Sorry for the wait...

I will try to be better.

-Silverserpent


	21. Chapter 21

Hello everyone. Once again I apologize for the huge delays between updates. I really don't mean for them to happen. Life just sort of pops up when you least want things to go bad. Anywho I hope to have the next chapter out by next monday so hopefully you enjoy this one and the next will be on time. :)

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Cause and Effect Ch 22

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Heero jolted awake as he felt the shuttle's decent into the atmosphere. He had been sleeping for a solid six hours if they were still on the correct trajectory and hitting atmo at the designated time. Trowa was supposed to wake him up halfway through to switch pilot shifts.

Heero wrenched the curtain back and looked over at Trowa who was facing the console. He didn't bother turning around; he knew that Heero was awake and would be annoyed that he was unable to be of any assistance for the flight. Heero quickly brushed his eyes with his palms to gain a little more alertness and then headed for the seat next to Trowa.

"Twenty nine minutes and fourteen seconds till touch down. One of the prisoners wet himself." Trowa looked over at Heero was half-heartedly glaring at Trowa in annoyance and Trowa shrugged saying, "You looked like you could use the sleep." Heero stretched his arms above his head before switching to look at the instruments for re-entry. Trowa definitely had things under control, but at the same time he liked to be able to know what was happening to change things if it was deemed necessary.

The hull of the shuttle abruptly stopped shaking as they broke through the upper levels and hit blue sky and cloud zones. Trowa set the course for port approach and leaned back in his seat. "No notices while you were down." Heero nodded. He had just been about to check his email for the thirteenth time in the last day and a half. That wasn't too bad, but for more than half of that he had been on a mission and asleep, so perhaps a little bit concerning.

Trowa looked at him from under his bangs and asked blatantly, "Why is this keeping you up, Heero?"

Heero looked at him and shrugged not saying anything, but having no way to change the subject either. It was a fair question. All of the pilots had been suffering since Wufei had been placed in jail and Heero was not usually one to be weighed down emotionally. And yet somehow the situation seemed to be hardest for him to handle then every other pilot.

"I…" Heero spoke. He seemed startled that his own voice was attempting to explain. "I just need to find him and explain, so that he understands."

The cockpit was silent for a moment before Trowa tried, "So that he forgives you?" Heero shrugged and they were silent for a while looking out the windows of the shuttle craft. "I want him to forgive me too, Heero. But it doesn't keep me up at night. I'm not actively seeking him out so he can exact retribution as he sees fit. Neither is Duo or Quatre. You should think about that the next time you try to go on an all-night search binge or stop letting yourself sleep when you really need it. Ask yourself why it matters." Trowa decided to go silent at that; what he said was apparently enough.

Heero mulled over what Trowa's unusual speech as they finished out their flight. The normally stoic pilot had a point that was important, but Heero still felt he had an obligation towards Wufei. Perhaps because it was his plan initially that landed Wufei in a facility for nine months. He was only supposed to be there for three. But that thought of three months had been distressing initially as well when they had him on the shuttle after capture almost eleven months prior. He had been feeling this weight at least since the shuttle flight. Close to a year and he had only seen footage of Wufei at a distance from the jail break. Heero shook his head clearing his thoughts and refocused as Trowa lowered the wheels for landing.

Quatre and Une had vital information that he needed to be able to analyze and incorporate into what he knew. The slight bump of wheels hitting the tarmac had Heero up and moving to the back to check the prisoners they were transporting. Technically they were supposed to be treated with a certain level of humanity, but nowhere was it outlined that they were allowed bathroom breaks during transport, so Heero was unmoved to see one with wet pants.

Heero uncuffed one from the wall as the craft stopped and door in the hall was being opened. Two Preventer agents came to escort the first prisoner and a second team of two came for the other. Heero nodded to Trowa for an all clear and stepped out of the craft to the stairs leading to the large concrete shuttle port. There was a petite brunette woman in Preventer business uniform waiting for them. One of Une's assistants undoubtedly. "I'm here to escort you to the briefing room." She spoke loudly over the roar of other engines. She was obviously used to this environment so not a green horn. Trowa nodded and they followed swiftly behind as she took them to a jeep and pulled out of the port.

The trip was silent as they approached the shiny glass and metal skyscraper that was the Preventer's New Berlin headquarters. It stood alone as it was far from the center of New Berlin, but it still managed to dominate the skyline. This was what happened when politicians did have their way unlike the post-military base that was the Detroit base of operations. She parked up front and led them inside to an elevator that was off to the side of the normal elevator banks and placed her thumb on a scanner.

Heero had yet to visit this facility, but was content with the security seen so far. The doors slid open and they stepped in and the elevator went down. That was unexpected.

"We are heading to a high security clearance zone only. You will obtain access once we are downstairs. So far it is just Lady Une, Mr. Winner, and two other assistants that have clearance to these floors." She spoke succinctly, which Heero appreciated. "I am Mackenzie Cartwright. I was one of Lady Une's lieutenants in the war. The other two are also from her previous command."

Silence rolled over them as the elevator came to a halt and she lead them down a cement walled, fluorescently lit corridor with several rooms along it' passage. The last door on the end of the hall yielded a large room. With paper piled high in stacks on table and desks and chairs. Several screens were mounted and displaying different bits of information. Profiles of potential criminals.

Une was currently bent over a pile of papers in the back left hand desk of the room while Quatre was sifting through a stack and sitting on the floor. There were sandwich wrappers and coffee cups littered around the room between the various stack of papers that were piled in what seemed to be organized chaos. The back wall had three names written above each of the desks with the pictures of Eckpo, Donnovan, and Marcus above each desk. The piles of papers surrounding the desks were high and appeared to have spilled over to the surrounding floor. Heero saw Quatre look up and nodded in greeting. Trowa stepping further into the room careful not to shift any precariously stacked folders. Une looked up when the shuffle of paper from Quatre stopped. "Ah, hello agents." She said in lieu of greeting and nodded to Mackenzie who turned and departed.

Heero looked around and tried to make sense of the chaos, glancing at various stacks. He worked operations not data checking. He could be an excellent researcher, but this was how they were distributing the workload currently. Quatre and Une looked slightly over-caffeinated but otherwise fine.

Quatre stood up and went to one of the computers that was controlling a screen and began searching through files. Une stepped forward and ushered them towards the screen. "What you are about to see is going to be fairly disturbing." Heero raised an eyebrow at her. And she shook her head, "Not violent...more personally upsetting. And we are attempting to work around the new developing situation."

Quatre finally located his desired file and clicked. A video file popped up. It was a court room. The judge was rattling off the normal words that were said at a given trial and Heero keyed in hard when he heard "Bring in the accused 503492-T" Heero fixed to the screen as Wufei of eleven months ago appeared on screen in magnetic cuffs and watched his supposed pre-trial sentencing unfold. He felt his muscles tensing in anger that reflected Wufei's on screen protest and rage and watched as he was led away.

He was silent with fury when the clip ended. Trowa spoke up clipped, "This is illegal in every way. Why have we not seen this footage?"

Une shook her head and moved a pile of papers off one of the chairs in the room to sit down. "There appear to be some issues within the government, such as this repression of the truth and illegal sentencing. We were just able to obtain this video under threat of a clerk on his staff." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. "The judge appears to be the one driving some of these cases...This Judge Hadeling."

Heero growled, "Why has he not been arrested?"

Une shook her head. "He's untouchable."

"We have him on video violating prisoner rights." Heero insisted darkly. This was the man who appeared to have knowingly sent Wufei to prison without fair trial. Heero felt anger starting to swell in his chest. "We should be able to go to his front door and arrest him today!"

Une shook her head. "The evidence is not why he's untouchable, Heero. Please try to understand. If we were to go in now and accuse him of using his power to imprison people without proper trial it would turn over every case he has ever ruled on."

"So?" Heero growled. "He has probably done this more than once."

Quatre nodded and spoke up, "Undoubtedly. But you must know, he has been ruling for the past decade. Not just since ESUN came together. The majority of which were not done incorrectly. Every single decision he made would be called into question. And most would not be allowed to be sentenced again. Double jeopardy would save them from it." Quatre sighed rubbing his hands over his face. "I wish we could go to his home right now. He should be dragged out and shot if you really want to know how I feel. But we can't."

"It would destabilize any sense of trust the public has in the government to hear a story of people being hidden forever." Trowa said quietly.

The room was silent and Heero thought over the outcomes quickly and nodded his head in ascent. The facts were pointing to what Une and Quatre was saying was the truth. This would destabilize a lot in an already shaky government. "Then what can we do about it?"

Une spoke up and said pointedly, "We are investigating how far this goes. He had to have contacts within Wufei's jail as it appeared that most of the cases heading through there were ones that were hidden, but that also means he had to have other contacts either in record departments or at other jails to set up all the false transfers that Wufei was supposedly going through."

"I'm sure Alan Scott, the warden, had some ties, but we haven't been able to get a solid link yet. We have not wanted him alerted into running yet either." Quatre said out. He said Alan's name with a certain level of distaste and Trowa quirked a brow at him. Quatre obligingly said, "He was the one that sat me down the second week and said Wufei had been placed into solitary confinement and would not be available for a week. Then informed me the following week that due to issues with Wufei they had him transferred, it was puzzling at first, but I know that he is somehow tied with all of this. Of course I knew about the bad trial too from day one…" He faded out and had an unfocused gaze on the table in front of him.

"Is there anyone we can interview?" Heero prodded. The investigation would move slower than it had been if they were not actually able to interview anyone.

Une once again sighed, "Unfortunately the jailbreak was a lot more violent than the initial accounts called for. We have access to tapes, but personnel from the actual facility were tortured and or slaughtered for the majority of the riot." She pointed to multiple stacks over to the right of the room. "Those are the files for every prisoner and everyone who worked there. But the good news is the doctor will be arriving tomorrow. As far as we can tell she seems to have no connections, so we thought it to be safe to bring her in."

"When does she arrive?" Trowa questioned.

"Tomorrow."

They were all quite again. Heero was thinking about ways to increase the speed of the investigation ways to cross-reference all the information. "Why is everything in file format? Why not tap into the servers?"

Quatre winced at the question; he had obviously been expecting it. "In light of the fact that an upper level of the judicial branch has been compromised, we have decided to move all investigations to this area, which means that we can't have open databases to the external network. There appears to be corruption in some major branches of government. We've been bring down the data and uploading it to our local computer banks, but sometimes it's just easier to see the connections this way." He shrugged. "Perhaps, while you are here you can help organize the local databases."

Heero nodded. That would let him preview all the files and organize the information in an efficient set up. He would find the pattern and remove the judge. The man deserved to die, but this was second best.

There was a knock at the door and Mackenzie strode in, "I'm sorry to interrupt Lady Une, but we received an anonymous vid-disc that I think you need to see. Now." She looked concerned. Quatre took it from her hands and slotted it into the nearest computer. "It arrived ten minutes ago by courier. It was addressed to you and the Gundam pilots."

Heero looked startled at that. Few people knew they worked for the Preventers. Heero tried hard to stay out of public lime light and the majority of the pictures he found of any of the pilots on the internet, he hacked and forcibly removed.

The video started and Heero felt his chest freeze. It was Marcus. "Hello Lady Une and pilots. It's been too long since I've seen you all. I was very sad to lose your business after the war. Especially Trowa, those shells Heavyarms used made me quite the profit." He smirked into the camera. It was pre-recorded. "I thought you all would like to play a game. I've always liked chess. A war game of strategy and intelligence, moving each opposing army until the kings met an untimely demise. So here we are in our own real life version of chess. You have your agents I have my minions and in the end one side will lose. The problem with this scenario is that you are all unaware that there is a war going on." He laced his fingers together loosely and rested his chin on his hands. "Now I don't plan on destabilizing the government, I just want to sell my products. Destabilization is part of the ripple effect."

He smiled and sat up straight taking a sip from a glass of what appeared to be whiskey. "So consider this your warning. We are at war. This is my first move. But I want to give you a hint to make this interesting. I suggest you look to protect anyone in a compromised position and to secure your assets. And as a final hint," he paused eyes narrowing into the camera. "Our next move is in three days."

The silence after the first time viewing the video was startled, like the seconds where your brain freezes as you happen across a bomb that was unexpected and instincts scream run away, whereas training says dismantle it. The group watch it again and again and again until the silence turned grim and heavy.

Une shuts it off and looks to Mackenzie who left the room disappearing down the hall. Une looked to each of the Gundam pilots, Heero standing against a wall, but distracted and Quatre and Trowa sitting at the table. Quatre had a far off calculating look and Trowa just looked tired. Mackenzie returned wheeling a dry erase board from another room. "Thank you Mackenzie. Please get agent Cole and agent Rodriguze in here asap. You are to return as soon as they are en-route." She nodded and left. Une went to the board and drew out in large block letters. 'Compromised Positions', 'Assets', and 'Goals'.

"We need to figure out where he is going to hit us and we have just under three days to do it."

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TBC...

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Yay. Plot update.. Character angst and other fun bad things. Next monday I will try very hard for another chapter.


	22. Chapter 22

So I know that I said next Monday. But this Monday came around and I had another chapter ready... So I was like. Why not? I would love reviews. tell me what you like Tell me what you hate. Hell, tell me what your favorite color is. It's just nice to know that all those hits aren't automated randoms or something. Like drones are what's reading. :) Not that you guys are drones...just...

Never mind.

On with the FIC!

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Ch 22

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The atmosphere was tense around the conference rooms. Heero was searching through the flurry of new reports that were streaming in as quickly as possible from the fields. The first day had been a mess of brainstorming and pulling staff from varying projects into conference rooms to network as fast as they could think. They had recruited from every department; intelligence, field operations, and security were being poached from the most. They even had gone as far as pulling local authorities in several key cities and informing them of the possibility of violence in their areas.

Those had been frustrating meetings for Trowa, as all the local officials and officers wanted to know what exactly they should be watching for and the Preventers could not give them a satisfactory or on target answer no matter how persistent the question was asked. Trowa had been in on many of those calls. The amount of cursing had been high.

Heero paused his shuffling through the papers again and thought back to the categories from the initial board in his head.

Compromised positions could be anything. Politicians like Relena, senate members, or Lady Une even. It could be stretched to the colonies themselves, or civilians. Talking about it after they threw all the ideas on the board, all of the Gundam pilots came to the conclusion that based on their arms trade history with Marcus the colonies and the civilians would probably not be what were targeted. He was intelligent and tenacious when achieving his goals, but he would not purposefully go after those populations. From there they began listing who the highest possibilities for attack were and what to do about it.

Relena and the other senate members on the ESUN council had all been relocated in the past sixty-nine hours and kept with small security staffs that they all had along with supplemental forces given by the Preventers as support. They were taking no chances with the higher government officials. Everyone below them was sent out alerts and being ranked in order of priorities by Mackenzie. She was in charge of supplying staff for security details until they passed the three day mark.

Compromised positions could be all their field agents and undercover agents. There were several thousand agents at any given time, but after a sweep of the computers Heero had established multiple new breech algorithms with Lady Une's permission and none of their databases seemed to be compromised. Those same field agents could be considered assets as well as in compromised positions, which was something of note and therefore probably meant they were very high risk for attack. At the thirty-six hour mark Lady Une authorized the issuance of a coded message to all undercover operatives to be cautious in thirty six more hours as they might be in compromised positions. Some of them would receive the message in time, others would not. It depended on the ability of each individual field operative to check their encrypted boxes, which as Heero knew did not always happen daily. Often times it was a bi-weekly update.

That could be incredibly problematic.

Heero had been checking for contact from Duo for the last- he looked at the clock ticking down in the corner of his screen on his laptop- sixty nine hours, thirty three minutes and forty seven seconds. There was not much time to go before the seventy two hour event horizon and they still had not narrowed down the immediate potential strike zones by much.

Other assets would be their weapons holds, but each facility had their own supply for their own people. There would not be enough in any facility alone for them to re-establish the arms trade. It would be a poor use of weaponry to attempt a raid of that magnitude. Other assets would be transports, but they were always on lock down.

The last point to wonder on would be goals. But Marcus's goal was easy. He wanted to re-establish his gun running operations. That was what he always wanted. There was no need for it. He had lots of money and he didn't necessarily like war. He just liked how he felt when he was doing the drops and the shuffles of cargo. He liked the power he wielded.

So what he needed was weapons, no agents within his group and, to re-establish himself as the number one dealer again. Many others had stepped up while he had been away in jail. A lot of new competition to supply people who had a cause they needed weapons for. Marcus wanted to take back those buyers.

It was simple enough. But now they just had to wait and hope they predicted him correctly.

Heero looked up at the flurry of work that was being done in the office. All other missions had been put on hold. Many of the staff had minimal sleep. Une and Quatre were over in the corner still attempting to brain storm possible outlets despite it being under three hours until Marcus would make his move. Heero understood that drive. Although very displeased with how they had to send the doctor home and reschedule her because of this new crisis that had evolved; he knew that finding Wufei would be pushed to the back burner and for good reason. A major syndicate that could destabilize peace was attempting to do exactly that.

Heero's phone chirped at his side. He pulled it from his belt and he looked at the screen. His thoughts stopped for a moment. Duo.

Instincts kicked in quickly, "Everyone QUIET!" Heero burst out. The room was stunned to silence as Heero was scrambling for his speaker adapter. Heero never yells. He plugged it in and answered. "Status."

"Hey Ro." Last syllable, he was in trouble. His voice was soft and echoing slightly. A whisper. "I have a mic going. The boss man is calling me in. Something is fishy."

Heero's mind was running as Quatre moved closer to the phone as if it would help. Basic instinct. Each of the pilots felt their heart beats slow. Duo knew he shouldn't be calling them with a live line if he was compromised. He would be giving of a signal that would be easy to pin him as a mole within the group's ranks. "Duo-" Heero started but was interrupted by a "Shut up, Ro."

Duo sighed audibly, before continuing, "I've got maybe a minute before I'm in the room. Weeks of being here and they just now want me. This stinks. Especially since everyone has frozen up. I was supposed to do a run today. Instead I'm heading in to meet the boss man. It makes no sense. I'm carrying, but I don't have high hopes." Duo seemed to snap out of his commentary and get to business, "I'm currently in L-three's district colony two. I need you to have eyes on it. Look for any sub-e class cruiser that comes off it. If I get out it will be on one of those. I estimate six hours max. And if Lady-fucking-Une is there you tell her that I expect a pickup. I'm heading towards my favorite star."

Heero looked up at Une and she seemed unfazed by the swearing hurled at her and Quatre was already phoning the L-three colony Preventers to have satellite feeds of the external district colony. They'd need to see if he made it. "I'm muting you in three."

"Good luck." Trowa said. There was a blip and they could hear Duo's breathing, but anything on their end would be mute.

Une spoke up first, "Decode that for us please, one of you. We need to rescue our man and none of that was standard Preventer code."

Duo was still walking according to the sounds of his breathing and footsteps in a hallway. Trowa spoke up, "Most of that wasn't even in code. He's in trouble obviously. We need satellite imaging of the district colony indicated, which is what Quatre has being set up now." Indeed Quatre was busy with Mackenzie patching in lines to a monitor to project four angels on the colony. "Sub-e class cruisers will be any short range ships that are meant for less than five passengers."

"But those have twenty hours of life in them. They're meant to get from one L cluster to the other L clusters. Why six hours?"

"Because of varying factors. Maybe he knows that the ships aren't properly fueled. Maybe the ships aren't properly maintained as far as life support. These aren't government or passenger ships Commander Une. These are drug ships. They don't really follow normal regulations. It's his estimate of the time he has." She nodded in understanding. "Finally his favorite star is actually the moon." He smirked, "He's going to put in coordinates to send him towards the moon. We need to compute the trajectory that he launches from and intercept along the way. Since he'll only have about six hours we'll plan for a distance of four. We need to attempt a pickup in that time."

Out of the speakers came a knock on metal, probably a door, and everyone refocused. Trowa was beginning to work out probable trajectories, but he was listening carefully. Considering he was the one that usually did undercover operations he seemed more on edge then most everyone else in the office. He knew the risks better than most.

"Hello? I was told to report here today." It was a cheery voice that was care-free and relaxed. "My route manager told me to come see his boss."

"Shut the door." It was a deeper, harsh voice, one that had too many cigarettes to get back to normal human. There was brief silence and the sound of a door being shut quietly. "You've been doing a decent job for us, Maxwell."

"I'd like to think I'm doing a little bit better then decent." Duo snorted.

Une shifted closer to Quatre, "He's not acting like he's under cover. Why?" She asked quietly.

Quatre, "I'll explain later." He whispered back.

The silence on the communication stream went for a bit before Duo cut in, "So am I being promoted or what?"

"I've appreciated you coming to join our organization, but we've been under-utilizing you." There was a cough before the man continued. "We've always wondered why you would come to us when your reputation precedes you. You seem to be able to handle business yourself." It was a statement and a question. One that Duo didn't seem to care to answer. "Now your reputation seems to put you in a camp I can trust...but I have other information come to me. That says you are not to be trusted."

"Who?" Heero tensed. That was the voice of Shinigami. All of them heard it, threatening and dangerous. The last time it emerged was in the war.

"Does it matter?"

A dark chuckle from Duo, "You must know by confronting me like this, you will die today."

"Ah yes. I do. But while we have been chatting the trap closes and it is also your day to die. This was the plan since I learned you are pilot zero two, the god of death and I'm content to say I have family that will be glad for you to join them."

There was quick movement and rustling, dull grunt and a thud with a gurgling, choking noise. "You there, Heero?" It was quick and tight.

"Yes."

"I'm estimating five minutes max before the goons notice. Slit his throat. This is not Eckpo." There was a slight grunt of exertion on his end of the communicator. "I'm trying our old exit routes"

"Get out safely." Heero responded quickly. An order.

Duo giggled. And threw out happily, "Yes, dear." Une shook her head, incredulous at the man's giggling in a life threatening situation. But the cryptic voice was back, "You have eyes and transport?"

"Eyes yes." Heero clipped in.

Trowa spoke across the room, "We have six possible transports. You're good."

"K. I'm muting you again. Keep watch. Shinigami has returned."

And the line went silent with the very low sounds of Duo's breath barely audible.

"Commander Une I'm going to need proper authorization codes to alter transport routes on all six of these ships just in case." She nodded and motioned to Mackenzie.

"I'll have them in ten minutes." And with that Mackenzie exited the room. It left them listening intently to the whisper that was Duo's slow inhales and exhales over his line. Quatre had all satellite feeds and was monitoring them closely.

"He can't just be sitting there." Une murmured at the silence.

Quatre shook his head. "No. He's moving in the vents. It'll be a lot slower than blind running, but he may get out clean this way. Though he did say five minutes clearance so..."

"Wait...He's crawling through vents right now? I can barely hear him breathing let alone moving." Une spoke. Quatre nodded, while Heero glared for the unnecessary questioning. She shook her head with a small smile on her lips. "We never had a chance of catching you during the war, did we?"

Trowa smirked, "Duo is unrivaled in stealth. And you did catch us occasionally. Give yourself credit." Une nodded as she listened to the quiet crawl through the ventilation system of whatever compound Duo was in.

"This is almost official. We need to remove all undercover operatives." She said looking at Quatre. It was about two hours out to the seventy two hour mark. He nodded in assent. If Duo was blown there was a very high likely hood that all other ops might be blown. Quatre picked up a phone to call field operations; it was time to message them to come out. Hopefully they would get it in time.

Distant yelling shot over the coms. "Time's up." Duo whispered. There was a quick scuffle of boots on metal and the barest rustle of clothing quickly followed by close muffled yell and silence. Duo's quick foot- falls still quiet for how fast he was running were feeding through.

_BLAM-BLAM-BLAM. _Gunfire following him, "Shit." _BLAM. _"I'm hit." He was breathing harder and quicker, yells echoing and gunfire following.

Abrupt "Hey-" and the snap of bone followed by a gurgle noise came through the line. Static began popping regularly interrupting the communicator's link.

Heero shook his head. "They have a communication block going up." An intermittent sound of a blaring alarm was going. Heero listened carefully for the noise between the static. Gunfire, boots pounding quickly and static...

The line suddenly went silent. "We lost him." Heero got up and crossed to be in front of the satellite screen. "What do our reports have on the colony activity of Eckpo's group?"

Quatre pointed to the bottom left screen. His voice was blank and calculating when he spoke, "We think they are in the third quadrant of the colony." Heero stared intently at the screen.

Duo had been in tough situations before. He would get out. There was no way he would not get out. He had to. Minutes began ticking by and they sat staring looking for any sign. Waiting.

Mackenzie walked in and handed Trowa a sheet. He began lining up the codes to the ships instead of staring at the screen. There was nothing else to do.

An explosion on the side of the colony, a quick red flame that easily went extinguished in the vacuum of space. The automated distress lights of the colony kicked in yellow pulse broadcasting a decompression. Debris was floating outward, but still no ship. Une whispered, "Come on, Duo."

Heero heard it and frowned. He was going to make it. There was no question, no need for the whispered hope. He stared at the screen waiting.

A second explosive decompression thirty meters down blew out debris and a shuttle emerged on the end of it... Something seemed wrong. "Freeze image." Quatre had seen the same and was already bringing it up. The image came up and they zoomed up on the shuttle. Only one of the two engines appeared to be firing and half the ship was decompressed. From right engine to mid length the hull had been ripped out. Heero moved quickly beside Trowa who was looking over the specs of the ship they were expecting. "We need to recalibrate for the lost thrust on the starboard side."

Quatre moved back to the vid feeds and was following the craft as it moved quickly away from the colony. There was no tail, but Duo did not open a channel either. He moved next to Trowa's side looking at the shuttle specs, while Trowa worked out fleet positions again. They would need new ships because Duo would be so off course. Heero began doing the work to recalibrate the path the shuttle would take.

After a minute Quatre spoke clinically, "He has less than a four point two percent chance of survival." He looked at the fading dot on the screen as the shuttle moved out of range of their satellite's capabilities.

Trowa shifted and bumped Quatre out of his business like gaze. He touched his shoulder looking down at his friend. "We have faced worse." Quatre nodded with a smile, but the concern didn't leave his eyes when he looked back.

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TBC

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YAY! Another Chapter. There is a box just down below now GO THERE and be like I like the color blue. OR YOUR STORY IS AWESOME. or YOUR STORY SUCKS! whatever. Just go there.

I'll try to get another chapter out by next Monday. :)

Ciao,

Silverserpent


	23. Chapter 23

Hello Everyone! Not exactly on schedule, but I got sidetracked by lots of reading of Thor fanfiction which is a very recent obsession. Mainly with Loki. Why do I always like the Loners? Wufei, Loki. Damn.

Anyways I would like to say thank you so much for the 6 or 8 comments I recieved from the last post! I tried to work some suggestions in that were requested. So this chapter is a bit longer. It unfortunetly still has a lot of office scenes, but I hope to be out of that soon. :) Like the next chapter soon.

So thanks for the Reviews! Criticism and praise are always greatly accepted!

On with the Fic!

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Ch 23

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Heero stood tense next to Trowa on the tarmac of the shuttle port, eyes fixed on the awkward decent of the shuttle clamped onto the hull of the scrapped Sub-E class cruiser. The pilot was having trouble bringing the wrecked heap to ground. Using a shuttle as a towing vehicle with external clamping was an extremely rare maneuver because of the high risk involved. It was fine in space, but earth's gravity tended to make the ships fall out of the sky under these circumstances. The clamps were straining to hold onto the torn shuttle and Heero observed the emergency lines that were feeding the craft's cockpit with oxygen.

They were waiting for it to touch down before rushing in, eager to see if their friend survived. The report from the rescue shuttle said the hull was too compromised to dock with and complete an extraction while in space. The look of the craft itself seemed to confirm that as the back half had been ripped apart; the area for normal clamping and docking. The shuttle crew had clamped the cruiser and someone went external in a suit to attach the oxygen feeds to the shuttle. That had been two hours and twenty three minutes after the initial escape from the colony. Luckily the new trajectory sent him very close to earth.

It had all gone very smoothly except they had not received confirmation from inside the cockpit if Duo was inside it and alive. There had been no outgoing messages as the communication relay had been lost.

Quatre was in the sub-terrain offices with Une waiting for updates now that the three day mark had passed. Marcus said they would strike and now was the time to wait and control damages.

Trowa with the medical kit shoulder bumped Heero, who had a tool kit, a signal to start moving forward. The craft was about a foot off the ground and close to landing, might as well get a head start into the debris. The engines were powering down slowly, but they did not let the noise bother them as they started walking into the end of the sub-E class. The engine had long stopped working on this ship and luckily nothing was still overheated since the rescue crew had to enter the atmosphere slowly with the cumbersome package it had been towing. Climbing over a loose brace and into the hall they walked up the metal planks. It appeared it was the back engine that had exploded and not a decompression from the interior. That was a good sign for survival.

The walls were scraped up and missing chunks with cables exposed, but the damage was less towards the head of the shuttle. They arrived at the door to the cockpit and Trowa knocked twice. There was no response. Heero began prying out the panels to the right hand side of the door attempting to get to find the lock's manual override. Behind them a medical team was entering the broken hallway. "Do you need anything?"

Trowa looked back as Heero kept prying into the wall with a crowbar, "We may need a blowtorch." Trowa said. It'd be risky, especially if Duo's side was oxygenated and pressurized still, but if they could get the door open they'd need to melt their way through.

A runner turned to retrieve the requested equipment while the rest of the team hunkered down and waited. Heero was pulling wires quickly, bending his arm towards the door to manually release the lock. It was pressurized which was a great sign, one that Heero was glad to have his job of getting the door open be difficult for. He heard Trowa's hesitant knocking on the wall again. One, two, three, four… "Duo?" Trowa called through. "Duo if you can hear us open the locks." There should still be power routing through the emergency lines from the shuttle to the cruiser's cockpit. Heero still was ripping his way through the siding to get to the locks.

There was a hiss from the wall in front of him and he took his arm out quickly. It was depressurizing. Trowa looked over at him raised eyebrow. Heero looked at him and shook his head. It wasn't him that did it. Heero pulled his ever-present gun from his waist band and had it at the ready as the locks clanged open in the door. Trowa stepped back, pulling his own gun. They didn't necessarily know if it was Duo inside. Heero pressed forward and unlatched the door sliding it sideways into the wall and paused before raising his gun sharply.

The interior was bloody. Every wall, the floor, the ceiling - every surface had blood splatter painting the walls with a few bloody handprints smeared in. There were two bodies on the floor and Trowa rushed forward to check for life and if it was Duo, but Heero caught sight of the tail end of Duo's braid hanging off the side of the command chair that was facing towards the cockpit windows. "Command chair" Heero blurted and quickly stepped through the gooey half-dry pools of blood on the floor. Trowa turned and stood from the body he was looking at and swiveled the chair. Duo was there- eyes closed, blood smeared on cheeks and clothes drenched. Trowa felt for a pulse on Duo's neck. Heero noted a belt acting as a tourniquet on Duo's thigh. His black clothes prevented the immediate observation of injuries.

Duo's body jumped as fingers pressed to his neck and a hand shot up in a vice grip clamping around Trowa's wrist. A huge heaving intake of breathe as he struggled to get upright was the instant Heero noticed that Duo was strapped into the chair. He had seat belted himself in. Duo never did that, unless he absolutely had to. Trowa easily twisted his wrist out of Duo's grip and began speaking soothingly, "Clam yourself Duo. You're safe. It's me and Heero. You're on base. Everything is fine." Duo's eyes darted up to Trowa and he blinked and began relaxing slightly, still panting.

Heero looked around at the two bodies. Their throats had been slit and the blood coating the walls were slick, but not true to slash patterns. It clicked suddenly; the gravity controls had been knocked out. It was why Duo was strapped in and the cockpit appeared to be a scene out of a horror film. Duo had spent however long in the flight with beads of blood from his two victims floating around him and had the sense for once to strap himself in before he passed out.

Heero came close again and began to remove the belts as Trowa was checking vitals. "It's good to see you two." Duo grinned at them. "I need a patch job on the leg, but other than that think I'm good."

"Good to have you back." Trowa said. Heero nodded in agreement alongside him as Trowa hooked up a small monitor patch on Duo. "It appears that you have oxygen deprivation. We should take you to a medical facility." Duo just chose to roll his eyes at Trowa and kept breathing in deeply.

"And all I need is you to get me to Une." His voice was clear, but there was a tired tinge intertwined in his tone. Duo lifted a hand and placed it on Trowa's shoulder and he smiled at him, a calm muted smiled compared with his usual boisterous ones. "Thank you for the worry. Both of you." He locked eyes with Heero. "But I am fine and there are people in danger. Sleep when we are dead, right?"

He grinned and stood up, before falling back down immediately laughing, "My foot's asleep!" He gripped the leg that had had the belt around it.

Heero smirked and made a quiet, "Hn" of acknowledgement. "You patch him up. I will contact the others." He walked into the hall where the medics were still sitting waiting. "Two bodies need to be removed for identification and trips to the morgue. Agent Barton is handling our agent." They moved in around him to retrieve the bodies as Heero continued to the outside.

Breathing in the air once he was outside of Duo's wrecked craft, Heero paused and inhaled deeply. Duo had made it back. The escape had obviously bloody and brutal, but he was alive. Some of the tension went out of Heero's frame as he lifted his cell to his ear and heard Quatre answer on the other end.

"He's safe. We'll be down as soon as possible."

"Thank goodness. Glad to hear it Heero." The relief was audible.

"Any movements seen?"

"Nothing on the Marcus front."

Heero was silent momentarily. No move yet. It hadn't been that long past the nominated time, but still he was anxious to do something other than compile reports and map out who was networking with whom. He should be in the field working. "Duo wants to talk with Une." Short and clipped.

"He's not going to a medical facility first?" Quatre sounded slightly upset.

"No. Trowa is patching a bullet wound and we'll be down."

"Copy. Over and out."

Duo limped into the underground offices first and Une immediately yelled, "Why are you not in the medical facilities?"

Heero skirted in behind him and went to Quatre's side to see if there was any new information in the last half hour he had been waiting by the shuttle. "Relax you lady-ship. I'm fine. It's not my blood!" Duo was cheerful despite the limp and blood covering him. "It was a sticky situation so I ended up…a little sticky I guess." He poked a blood streak on his arm and grinned as it did indeed stick slightly as an example of what he was saying.

Trowa came in carrying a blanket and Preventer workout clothes that were meant for training purposes, still attempting to mop up Duo. "Your braid will be a nightmare to wash out if you don't get it cleaned soon." He warned. And Duo's face did flash mildly in concern momentarily before he shrugged it off.

"It'll be more of an excuse to be lazy and take a long and wondrous bath." But he started taking off his shirt and letting Trowa mop up the blood from his skin and find out whether it was his or someone's he had left to die on his way out. "I need to update your list of people in the organization and report what happened, yes?" Une nodded not ready to argue with the exasperating braided menace. She appeared to be slightly rattled and off white, not used to seeing Duo immediately after a brutal mission.

Heero had seen Duo many times like this. Shinigami had risen like he used to in the war and he always came back bloody. Duo was stealth as much as he liked chaos, which meant he preferred to use knives along with his bombs. It made it easy to slit throats close up and never failed to cause panic among those he was attacking. A silent knife wielding killer close enough to slit someone's throat with minimal struggle and blood splattered everywhere. There was many a soldier on Oz bases that could not hold up to the panic of seeing colleagues on the floor and not knowing where the killer was. Though the cockpit was an extreme example from the zero-g conditions, it was a typical dismantling.

Duo had not intended to leave anyone he met alive. Heero knew that as soon as he heard him speaking on the communicator.

Currently Duo was listening to the updates of what had been happening for the last couple of days. Dropping his pants when Trowa asked, not really caring who else was in the room as he grabbed the blanket from Trowa and wrapped himself in it. Trowa continued cleaning Duo up as he listened to Quatre's update.

Finally it was Duo's turn to say what had happened, "Well you sent me to go fully in. So as you know I went in with Eckpo. I had to use my reputation with the Sweepers to get involved which was unexpected. For some reason they seem to be hesitant to take new recruits. Once I was there I began running the trade routes, but they were not letting me move up and I was there for a while…they even had me work with Donovan's runs." Duo had a flash of anger come on his face before continuing, "So it's confirmed that Donovan and Eckpo are working together." This they had figured and it was good to have full confirmation of the facts. "But they appear to be keeping everything tight and organized. Rookies were tried out multiple times before they were either killed or promoted to new routes."

Duo got an unsettled look in his eyes and stared at nothing for a moment. An unsettling quiet really, before he continued. "But then everyone started acting funny. About five days before today. The crew started being quiet around me. They would still try to be friendly, but there was tightness to it. And the man called me into his office today. You heard most of what was happening. I found records in his office that Marcus was the one that tipped them off. There was a list. It was a list that had multiple agents' names on it. Mine was at the top. I killed sixteen men on the way out; four more are injured and unconfirmed in the blasts. I took two on board for interrogation." He grinned darkly to himself, "Unfortunately with the explosion of one of my engines I had to kill one immediately with the failing life support, which is why I know that the sources is definitely Marcus through the interesting life or death interrogation of, 'you may live if you tell me as much as you know'. And I also know that no one in Donovan's group is at risk. Marcus and Donovan are not working together.

"Then I could not make good on the 'you might live' because I had to kill the other before oxygen levels dropped too much further. And you picked me up. Good work Une! Glad you could pick me up."

Duo frowned as Trowa started stitching up another cut in his shoulder that he had not noticed, probably from the shuttle escape. "Can you identify the men that you dispatched?" Quatre asked, shifting over to the pile of rap sheets under Eckpo's group to bring them for Duo.

"Of course!" Duo said. "I was hanging out with them for a while." He looked over at Une and sadly shook his head. "You may need to bring me Donovan's gang sheets as well. I tool out one or two that were questionable. There was no news of Wufei. I checked with people while I was there."

Mackenzie burst in through the door. "Commander, a list was emailed to us." She was holding pages in her hand and looked somber.

"A list of what?" She said.

"A list of our undercover agents that are in Marcus's and Eckpo's group along with a few other groups."

"Who emailed it to us?"

"Unknown. But we think its Marcus." Lady Une was looking concerned and about to open her mouth to ask, when Mackenzie interrupted, "It's titled 'A list of the dead'."

"How many?"

"There are seventy four names on the list."

Duo turned, "I thought you sent messages out to you agents."

"We did. But a day and a half ago just to be on guard. Not to leave their posts. When you were cleaning house we put out an immediate evac email to those in Marcus's and Eckpo's groups."

"But the men, they worked so hard for you. For this." Duo looked shocked and began getting angry. "You knew and _still_ risked them. You should have told them to leave immediately. How could you leave them like that?"

Quatre began in a bland tone stating, "They all know the risks of being an undercover agent, Duo. You know that."

"That may be true, but do you or she know the things we do for this organization?" Duo shouted back, "You owe those agents to try and get them out and now they're dead!" He stood up and was shaking with anger and towering with menace in his eyes despite being adorned in a blanket. "No wonder we haven't heard from Wufei! He'd have to be insane to come back here!"

Une fell back onto her commander training with a stern voice ordering, "Duo, sit and calm down!"

"_What?!_" Violet eyes spit venom, followed by the harsh deadly whispered "Calm down and relax?... I worked for Donovan to get intel you psychotic bitch, so I decline to calm down." He started to walk towards the door when he twitched rapidly away from Trowa's attempt to catch his arm and stop him. He glared at him and continued his rapid limping exit, "And if any of you follow me, I'll rip your throats out."

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TBC...

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Well I guess I ended on kind of a darker note there... That was kind of unexpected by me honestly. Don't know what my plot bunnies were thinking.

Reviews are ever so helpful! And encourage writing! I swear!

Ciao,

Silverserpent


	24. Chapter 24

Alright people! This is a considerably longer chapter then the usual! I think I wanted to get this part of the story out of the way so I could move on to the next, which I'm excited for.

I hope you like this chapter and PLEASE REVIEW. I really like feedback as it motivates me like crazy. Seriously I was re reading the same to reviews from last chapter over and over and over to type out this one.

It helps to know other people are reading this and it's not just for me. Being weird.

Anyeays hope you like it and On with the Fic!

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Ch 24

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Heero walked up the steps of the Preventer's owned apartment unit listening to Quatre following up the stairs behind him. They were in the beige hallways for a reason of course. Duo was staying here. It seemed to be a good sign that he had not simply disappeared after the way he had exited following their previous meeting two days ago. He had checked in a mere seven hours after storming off. Heero felt that Duo had already had an adequate cooling down period so they came to track him down. There was a mission and they needed him.

Heero arrived to room sixty four and knocked. Quatre stood unassumingly beside him. More and more Quatre had been less his empathetic self from the war, replacing it with a constant business strategist façade. Heero could appreciate the way he could now more easily follow pilot zero-fours thought process, but there was at the same time something distinctly unsettling about him. The lack of emotions driving his decisions was foreign.

The door swung open abruptly to violet eyes that looked at the two of them. There was no delighted smile that would have usually adorned Duo's face, just a sigh and an eye roll. He opened the door further to let them in. Heero looked about and noted the same clean modern facilities that all of the Preventer housing had, before turning back and assessing Duo as he shut and locked the door. He still had the blanket with blood patches on it that Trowa had gotten for him wrapped about his shoulders. He had clothes underneath, but Heero found it odd behavior. The only thing Duo normally held onto was his cross from his time at the orphanage.

Quatre sat on the sofa and Heero took the cue and sat next to him across from a chair. Duo came and sat down across from them, but remained stoically silent. Heero was unsure as to how to proceed. This was new territory.

Quatre spoke, "We need you for an assignment."

Duo snorted and scratched his scalp idly, "Of course you do." He leaned back and stared at the ceiling. Heero frowned. This was not the normal Duo by far.

"We're requesting that you come in to assist on a field operation that is of utmost importance." Quatre stated again trying to move past Duo's obvious apathy for the conversation.

"Why should I?" Duo asked sitting forward elbows on his knees staring hard into Quatre. "Why should I after what I have just been through, after realizing how little you all care?" No one moved and the silence was hollow and dead between them. Duo shifted and pulled the blanket around him and leaned back again staring out the windows of the apartment.

"What happened?" Heero asked abruptly. Curiosity was filling him as to what would make Duo go from absolute rage to this lifeless person before him. Never had Duo been like this.

Duo shrugged and continued staring out the window. "You know what happened. It was in the report I sent." Heero nodded. He had gone over the report and tried to align it with the new problems they had been facing. The problems they needed Duo in order to solve. Nowhere in that report was anything Heero could conceive of that would make Duo change this much.

Quatre's eyes were cool and calculating when he questioned, "What was left off the report?" Duo's eyes fluttered shut and he shook his head. Quatre stated again, "What was off the report?"

"I worked for Donovan." Duo whispered. "Just for a couple runs. But he specializes in..." He swallowed deeply and inhaled sharply. "You know..." Humans. Donovan was involved in human trafficking. "I was with another guy on my first run and we picked up our cargo." Duo's eyelids shut tighter imploring the memories to leave. "It was a bunch of kid. From four to thirteen or so. Orphans."

Heero startled as Quatre suddenly double over grabbing his chest, whispering "Oh no, oh no, oh no" over and over to himself, obvious pain scrawled across his face. Alarmed Heero got up and knelt in front of Duo.

Brilliant violet eyes looked at him shinning with unshed tears and Duo continued with a harsh raspy voice. "I was given specific orders on how to handle them…and I didn't want to blow my cover. So the first one to try and stand up for them...he had red hair...about eleven... I shot in the head. There was blood all over the others from that. Made them all quiet." He smiled a half smile that wasn't real as he remembered...seemingly blind to Heero kneeling in front of him touching his knee, oblivious to Quatre's gasping and the tears streaming down the blonde's face. "Then the ones too young and too weak I took to the airlock. Sealed them in. Looked through the window and spaced them."

Duo leaned back looking out the window eyes still shinny and unfocused, clutching the blanket around him. "It's okay though, right Heero? It'll be worth it in the end, right?" Heero stood up and didn't move. Didn't know how to proceed. Duo whispered to himself, "It was only four shuttle runs. Thirty three kids is nothing right?" Quatre was shaking in tears on the floor and Duo...

Heero felt a rising pressure in his lungs and bolted towards the door trying to heave a lung-full of air, grabbing his phone as he unlatched the locks and threw the door open crashing into the wall across from him and sinking to the floor he heard a voice answer on the other end of the phone. "I don't know what to do!" He yelled into it. "I don't know what to do." The line went dead and Heero shut his phone, looking at the door across from him that was open a sliver. He drew his knees up to his chest and rested his head on them trying to focus on breathing. He was no good to them like this. He was no good to any of them.

They were broken. They were all broken. Duo. Quatre. Wufei- the last name sent sharp panic through him again and he tried desperately to regulate his breathing. And he tried again. And he tried again.

He was broken.

The long eternity of trying to calm down was only stopped by a hand lain on his shoulder and he turned and looked into the concerned green eyes of Trowa. It had felt like hours, but in reality had been less than forty minutes since Heero had called him. He looked up at Trowa whose concerned eyes were trying to figure out what happened. Heero looked back to the door in front of them. Breathing normally. "They are in there." He shook his head, "I don't know what to do."

Trowa exhaled. "They are alive?" he questioned softly. Heero looked up sharply, but his brain kicked in before he could say anything. Trowa was walking in to a situation and had no idea what was happening. Where Heero had failed to inform him. He nodded in assent. Trowa kneeled beside him and turned Heero's face towards his. "Everything will be alright." He said and kissed Heero's forehead before getting up and heading into the apartment.

Heero waited staring at the cracked door, not hearing much of anything from inside. The minutes dragged on, but Heero just waited as he knew he should. Finally the door swung open and Trowa was half carrying Quatre out of the apartment. Heero rose quickly to help and Trowa let go as soon as Heero had the blonde teen. His face was streaked with tears and his eyes blood shot, but he still looked like he was in agony. "He cannot be around Duo right now. He's feeling too much." Trowa's gaze switched from Quatre to Heero. His eyes were sad. Heero could tell immediately. "You need to take him to his apartment and put him to bed. Stay with him. He'll recover. I'm going to stay with Duo."

He waited for Heero's confirmation. Heero nodded, but said, "The mission will be delayed." It was half statement, half question.

Trowa nodded. "Yes. The mission will be delayed." He turned and went inside the apartment shutting the door behind his tall form.

* * *

It had been three days before Trowa had emerged from the apartment with Duo, who still looked like he had not slept well. He was quiet and had lost the majority of his large grin. But he was functioning and recognizing what was in front of him, which was what had concerned Heero the most, the violet eyes staring at him without seeing.

Quatre by comparison had a much easier recovery, but it appeared that he was not able to gain his strong composure he had maintained since Wufei was detained. There appeared to be a level of unease or insecurity that Heero had not seen since Quatre thought he had to compete with the other pilot's skills at the beginning of the war. It was unsettling. And still Heero didn't know what to do. He had been unable to sleep.

But the problems the Preventer were facing before were still present after. And they were big problems.

It's what had them all two weeks later posted on neighboring buildings to a warehouse owned by the Preventers intended to store weapons that were going to be disposed. How Marcus's group had found these was unknown, because very few people had access to that information. There had to be a mole within the Preventers operations, but no one could seem to find the leak, despite multiple tests. But reflecting on Marcus's warning the undercover agents had been the people in compromised positions.

These disposal facilities had been the assets. Assets they failed to protect.

It had taken some time to discover three facilities in space had been hit. They had tied up all the workers and cleaned out the weapons, followed by wiping the camera footage. Amazing planning had gone into it. And no one had been killed which was unusual for gang related activity. The entire operations they seemed to be running were flawless and effective. It was inspired work really.

In the time that the pilots were… out of commission… five bases had been hit with four agents dying when they attempted to intervene. Those had been mainly in the Americas and South East Asia. Each one had been systematically cleared out. Nearly every day was a different hit.

Une had assigned a team to each of the remaining bases, giving the one that specialized in mobile suit destruction to the former Gundam pilots. They were highly suspecting a hit and soon. If their informant knew the locations of the warehouses they obviously would know that the weapons were set to be destroyed on a monthly schedule. This was in three days for the facility the pilots were currently watching.

The warehouse they had been staking out for two nights in the Nordic region of Europe looked fairly undisturbed. Through the upper windows the lights were on, which was normal despite it being night time. It was standard procedure for weapons holding facilities within the Preventers to be lit up at all times. It allowed for high visibility.

Heero squeezed the throat microphone and whispered, "No signs of forced entry or large movements."

Quatre concurred, "I'd imagined they would have a large force. One that was unmistakably stealing weapons. It doesn't make sense. How can these facilities be hit without a team bigger than fifty?"

"They haven't shown up yet? Are we sure?" Duo questioned. He had been placed on the opposite side of the warehouse scanning for movement as well. They each had been posted for over three hours since sundown and there were minimal signs.

Trowa interjected, "They should hit this one either tonight or tomorrow. If they know about the facilities they know that the schedule indicates disposal soon. They'd have to get the weapons out before then."

"Well I'm bored." Duo said quietly. It was the most Duo thing that Heero had heard all week.

Quatre replied almost jokingly into the mic, "Well you know what Wufei would say if he were here,"

"He's not." Heero interjected. The conversation over their communication units went dead. Good they should focus on the mission. It was hard enough knowing that they had been unable to help Wufei when he had been locked away in a prison and not being able to find him, but the thought of their missing pilot made Heero restless.

Every time someone brought him up was a reminder of their failure to assist their fellow pilot, their brother, his…. his what? Once these emergency missions for Une stopped he would…

What would he do? He had no idea anymore.

Wufei had escaped and not bothered to contact any of them. None of the pilots, none of his old contacts knew where he was, or else they weren't talking. But there was no reason to believe that. Even Sally didn't know where he was.

A noise crackling in his ear piece brought Heero back to focus. "Repeat last."

"Focus up." Trowa spoke softly. "I've got a warehouse manager tied up next to the propane tanks. He's told me that over an hour ago six men went in the south entrance with trucks. Visual confirmation shows video equipment surveying that side of the ware house, but not the north side."

Duo dropped in "North side it is. Anyone taking watch? There are only six of them."

"Is there roof top access?"

"Negative. Two doors north side. Bay doors south."

"We'll call back-up for south side once we determine the threat level, but I think we are already a go for observation and disarmament." Heero suggested. The sooner they went in the sooner they would be done and could move on to other tasks.

Trowa spoke up, "Quatre, tactical advice?" Heero felt irritation at Trowa for questioning his plan, but didn't comment. It would be best to follow what Quatre said.

There was silence for some moments, before Quatre spoke hesitantly. "It would be more prudent to have someone on the exterior of the South side, but perhaps a back-up squad will be alright. Une did want us diffusing the situation before we lose anymore agents…." After the seconds ticked by he spoke again, "Fine. Let's rendezvous north side in five for primary entry."

Heero stood from his lying position and stretched quickly. He checked to make sure his guns were still in the correct positions before taking off from the neighboring rooftop and into the rat like maze that was the warehouse yard. As he moved closer a prickle along his spine began to tickle and goose-bumped his skin. It was quiet.

He caught sight of Duo across the yard slinking along one of the bordering warehouses as well. Quatre and Trowa were already in position. Heero moved quicker. Something was wrong with his functioning. It wasn't in his nature to be the last agent to a rendezvous sight. "What did you do with the manager?" He really needed sleep after this mission. It had evaded him since… well for a long time really.

Trowa whispered back, "I released him and told him to run to the dock and wait." He was looking at the door and the window that was to be their entrance." Duo moved away silently, maneuvering himself under the window.

"The door alarms should be unarmed since they didn't break in and we didn't get a notification. We can split to different angles once we are inside." Quatre was looking at the distance between the warehouse and their current position in the shadows of some dumpsters. He nodded, seeming to come up with a conclusion in his head that he appreciated.

Duo bounded near silently towards them. "There are crates blocking the windows view, but it has a gap a foot wide on the other side. The door is blocked from view." He paused and frowned, "The Preventers really need to organize these warehouses better. It's asking for people to do this without being seen."

Trowa smirked, "I will make sure that recommendation is in the post-mission report."

Duo remained serious, but sent a ghost of a smile at Trowa, "I recommend door entry. We will just have to fan out once we are inside."

Each nodded in understanding and proceeded out into the open with the barest to scuffle on the pavement to cross the lot. Duo knelt in front of the door and pulled out lock picks from his braid and began working on the door, while the others looked around them for signs of the group they were hunting.

They didn't even have anyone patrolling. Normally they would have run into someone by now. Perhaps the group was just too small. Not enough man power. But it didn't make sense as to how they were clearing out the facility.

Heero heard the tell-tale click of Duo's success. This was it. They filed in and shut the door quickly. His ear piece made a slight whine as the door clicked, but it evened out. These warehouses had standard blast shield that sometimes interfered with electronics. They were facing large wooden crates that were stacked on top of each other three high. Far too high to scale, even for Trowa's acrobatics. Probably filled with mobile doll parts that were set for destruction. They had to go left away from the dead end on their right, looking for a way to fan out and any sign of the group that was cleaning out their weapons stores. Any information would be vital as Une made so clear, so this was strictly a no kill mission unless absolutely necessary. They each moved in spurts, switching off lead and changing positions as they moved further into the warehouse. Heero started having the prickle of alarm fire along his nerves more acutely.

Then he heard it, the first sign of the thieves. Heero turned ahead and hid behind a corner of another tall crate. He held up his hand in a warning not to advance any further. "We're almost done here." It was a deep voice that belonged to a tall black male. Heero could not see his face from this angle, without exposing himself. "Get the boss to come check." He tensed. This is what they needed to know, the man behind these very precise strikes.

A tap on his shoulder almost sent Heero into the crate in front of him. He turned around gun drawn. Trowa had come up behind him despite the hold position signal. Heero glared at him. Trowa whispered, "Com units are out." The prickle on Heero's neck that he had felt earlier turned into a spike of anxiety. This was too coincidental. No one around, the maze of crates that was too tall to climb over. His thoughts raced back to the whine in his ear as the door closed and he saw the dilation of Trowa's eyes. He knew it too.

There was an electronics jam set up specifically to be within the warehouse. That was not an easy thing to do. This was organized. This was an excellent plan.

This was a noose. And it was tightening quickly.

Heero turned back to look at the scene before him that was a little past halfway down the warehouse. This was their main target. But it didn't seem like their cover was blown yet. He didn't hear shouts of alarm.

The leader was almost in sight. The black man led and was blocking the view of the shorter man, who was the organizer. Black pants and red top of some sort. Muscular build. "We've removed everything, from this half as you've designated."

The man was about to move, when running footsteps from further down the warehouse caused both of them to turn away. Beside Heero, Trowa exhaled a sharp, "Fuck."

Heero looked at him inquiringly, "That's the warehouse manager that was tied up." That was their lookout. Disguised as a hostage. How had they been so stupid?

"They're here." He breathed out harshly, after running from wherever Trowa had left him.

"Go to the trucks, get them prepped." Commanded the boss.

Heero froze at the voice. The large black man moved and he couldn't help it. He inhaled sharply. Shocked. Beside him Trowa echoed his actions. Suddenly a head with long black hair whipped around and dark eyes were locked onto them and narrowed dangerously.

It was Wufei.

He whipped around quickly and slammed a button on the wall before running to the other half of the warehouse. Alarms began screeching instantly yellow lights flashing and a large steal walls unfolded and slammed down barricading them in at both ends. Fire safety walls. They were effectively locked in with no chance at communicating from the electronic jam. Of course Wufei knew how to do that.

They had played straight into his hands. Had taken the bait. It was the perfect set up to have walked into. It all made sense.

He would know where to get the Preventer security codes and he had access to all of them, he probably had them memorized along with the weapon dumps. He knew which agents Une would send in after them and he knew how to plan it to trap them exactly where he wanted them to be.

Heero stood up fully and punched one of the crates in rage. It flew off the other crate and hit the warehouse floor sounding hallow. Quatre, Duo, Trowa and Heero all looked at it shocked. Trowa reached out and pushed another crate easily.

They were all empty.

They had emptied out the supplies and set up the maze. Quatre had his hands over his ears against the squealing of the alarm. Duo looked at him and went to the nearest safety alarm and began disarming it. Soon the echoing squeal from the alarm was gone, but the flashing yellow light still pulsed, steal fire doors and blast shields were still in effect.

Quatre sighed and sat down. "We can't send a message out and we can't open the blast doors. They are wired to be opened from the exterior. We're going to have to wait until Une sends a team after us."

They were all silent. Absorbing what they just saw. They heard the sound of engines from trucks on the other side of the door start up and move away. Wufei and his team had managed to clean them all out once again. This was supposed to be so easy. Just in, detain and move on from the assignment.

Mission failed.

Heero dropped into a squat position and stared into space. It was obvious there was no threat to them. There was no impending attack. They were boxed in. Trapped.

Duo moved off to the controls again trying to shut off the bright flashing yellow light of the fire alarm. There was no hope of getting the blast doors open. They were designed to take massive explosions for a reason. It was building code, that if you are storing that quantity of high weapons grade explosives it had to be stored in this type of shelter.

Quatre wandered around checking all the crates. Trowa went to listen at the blast doors to try and see if there was any movement left. Heero covered his eyes, running his hands through his hair.

This was a disaster. It had been so long since that meeting, since Wufei had glared at them in rage. And nothing had changed. In that one flash of his eyes Heero had been seared all over again. Wufei was not interested in joining them. It was obvious. He had created the perfect trap. Lured them in and counted on surprise at seeing him as his safety net and they took the bait.

No wonder he had not tried to contact them since the break out. All the immaculate raids on the disposal units. They had been comprised, but it wasn't by an insider. Wufei was very much not working for them.

But after Duo's lecture to them all post undercover-ops and witnessing the breakdown of two of his close friends who still remained fragile versions or their former selves…Heero couldn't blame Wufei for not wanting to come back.

Mentally he knew should be trying to help categorize with Quatre on what had been taken. He should try and look for weak points in the circuits for the blast doors. They usually had a safety release. Sensors of some type. Hell, even standing would be better while he was on this mission to make sure he could react instantly if it was necessary. But he couldn't. He just couldn't.

Duo walked back over shaking his head. "The manual override has been removed. They knew what they were doing. I can't even get the alarm lights off, but I guess that lets outsiders know something is wrong through the upper windows. They kindly let the alarm circuits open so the noise could be cut." The yellow orange flashing was staining his skin sickly yellow every five seconds. Either that or he was really sick with what he saw.

"They're gone." Trowa shook his head walking over and stood beside the hunched over Heero.

Quatre wandered through, "Judging, by the weights of the boxes, they took everything." Heero twitched below the gathered pilots. They. It wasn't they. It was him. "Suit parts, rifled, explosives...They got-"

"It's not they." Heero whispered.

Duo looked at him sharply while Quatre kneeled next to him. He pulled his hands away from his face. "It's not they. It's Wufei." Heero ground out, anger rolling off him palpably.

"Wufei." Trowa agreed and Heero's strain dropped considerably with Trowa's agreement like letting air out of a balloon.

Trowa and Duo joined the other two pilots on the floor. They all knew they would be stuck until Une realized they had not checked in at the correct time. They were defeated and it was bitter. Each pilot sat quietly for an hour lost in their own thoughts. Until Quatre said, softly in the silence of the garage, "Still. It was good to see him." He smiled slightly looking up at the rest of them. Duo nodded and Trowa let a small smile pass his face.

"Red is his color." Duo smiled genuinely for the first time that week.

Trowa nodded, "He's muscled out. I've never seen Wufei looking so big. Not like overly so, just a lot more than what he was before."

They fell silent again. It had been too long since they saw him. A year. Between prison and no contact. Of course he'd changed.

Trowa lay back on the cold concrete and said, "On the plus side he doesn't want to kill us. He could have easily done so today." Heero finally came out of his squat and sat on the floor leaning against the crate behind him. It was true. Wufei could have easily had them executed. Perhaps this was a good sign. Maybe he didn't want them dead. He obviously wanted to hurt the Preventers in some way.

"I miss him." Duo looked at him and looked away as his eyes started watering.

"We all do."

No. Each pilot may have missed him, but Heero was the one that spent countless hours, scanning through prison complexes. Attempting to track all the fake prisoner transfers and canceled court appearances that were all a set up. Someone wanted him buried to rot.

"What did you do?" He spoke deadly soft. "I searched by every means I possibly could at every spare moment I had. I went through every electronic record known for all prisons and chased phantoms. I tried to visit three times from the first transfer." Indeed Heero had started to look gaunt, almost strung out over the last couple of months. Une had multiple times threatened him with forced leave, only to realize that the only times he actually slept decently was on a mission, because he would not search for Wufei while on a mission.

Trowa spoke trying to reason with him, "You know that we all have been looking for him. Before and after the break out. Duo sent care packages, talked to every known criminal who was available that had been in the system. Either no one talked or no one knew him. Quatre tried to visit countless times and got his entire law staff to try to gain access rights to all the prisons in the ESUN. I infiltrated three different prisons; until we thought to start back at prison one. We all miss him, Heero. It's not just you and you need to realize that."

Quatre nodded, "I agree. We've all been very concerned for you. You need to take care of yourself. We've now seen him and you know he won't be found unless he wants to be. You know that."

Heero looked at zero three and zero four. Duo had remained ominously silent. Heero exhaled loudly and admitted, "I am not at my optimal efficiency. I would have recognized this as a trap."

Quatre nodded. "We've all been stressed out." That was putting it mildly. "I'd guess at least another five hours before Une sends a team after us. Everyone just needs to rest."

Heero nodded and leaned back against the crate and recounted the week. Duo was still not himself; the incidents with the orphans were obviously tormenting him. Quatre though functioning couldn't seem to function as the usual high level strategist. Trowa seemed sad constantly, but was trying to be strong and help everyone. Even now Duo was leaning on his shoulder with his eyes closed. Heero just sat quietly. He didn't know how to proceed after this.

But Heero could admit his thoughts to himself. Even though Wufei had been working for Marcus, it had been good to finally see him.

* * *

TBC...

* * *

Alright people! That was a long one I know. I thought about splitting it into two, but thought why not give it to you all at once.

Please review! It's just that little box down there. You took the time to read it, what's alittle bit more to type a :)

Thanks,

Silverserpent


	25. Chapter 25

CH 25

* * *

The light red haze of dust particles was bad today in sector eight. One of the filtration units to the dome must have decided to stop functioning after its constant operation to purify the air. It would take a while to be fixed again, not a lot of parts were available this far out in space. Only certain shuttles had the ability to access Mars and terraforming equipment was difficult to get a hold of at times. Many pieces of equipment to keep the dome in tact were held together by gum and duct tape. And that wasn't an exaggeration, it was fact.

Mars was an interesting place to work as a Preventer's officer. They didn't really have much policing work to actually do, despite the area being slightly over-run by what the government deemed undesirables'. Actually most of the Preventer officers out this far were undesirables themselves. The main job was to look for key rebels or terrorists and do intelligence gathering. General policing was occasionally done, but not often. Not this far out of the ESUN.

Most of the people realized on some level that if they went out of line and stirred up trouble here they would have nowhere to go. And almost everyone was carrying weaponry, including the scientists. they usually had the scariest weapons on them. You could heal from a bullet wound as long as it wasn't a head shot. You can't necessarily heal from an injection of unknown chemicals. Even the simplest potassium phosphate mainlined could kill you. Or they could just shut off the production lines to the oxygen producing bacteria within the dome and kill everyone.

So generally the Preventers weren't frowned upon out here, but they were not necessarily welcomed either. And most outlaws out here were on their last strings anyways. Everything was based on alliances or friendships. If you pissed one person off that could be twenty people that would no longer assist you in any way and that is a lot when each of the twenty established sectors had between two to twenty-three thousand people. Huge chunks of the populations could up and turn on you. If someone happened to turn up dead after a situation like that it was not much of a surprise and there was never much of an investigation into it either.

That happened to be a rare occurrence though. One that Zechs felt was ironic. There was less crime on Mars then there was anywhere else in the ESUN. Less murder, less robberies, less…everything really. Zechs sighed pulled his scarf down over his face further. It wouldn't due to breath in the fine red dust. You could end up sick for a long time. Red lung they called it. He walked into the bar that was his usual haunt and nodded to the bartender, who nodded in return and poured him a whiskey on the rocks. That was something that was not in short supply on this red dirt ball - booze. One advantage to having thieves be your neighbors is that they made sure contraband routes were always running. And while alcohol wasn't contraband, the government refused to add it to their 'necessary cargo' list.

Zechs took his usual spot at the bar and removed his scarf and jacket. It was beginning to heat up again now that the planet's long night cycle was over. Despite the engineers best efforts the temperature controls seemed to always not quite be able to keep up. That was fine though. He would prefer to keep breathing then worry about bundling up or sweating a little. Taking a pull from the glass that had been generously poured and placed in front of him, Zechs paused and looked around the bar. There were several small clusters. Some playing darts and cars. Other's watching the news feeds. Most of the faces seemed familiar, until his eyes landed on a man in a jacket at the far end of bar. He sat quietly by himself barely moving. Jacket still on with a high collar, high enough to block Zechs from seeing the man.

He caught the bartender's attention and nodded towards the stranger. The bartender glanced in the direction indicated turned back and shrugged his shoulder. Didn't recognize him, so he wasn't a regular, just here on a new shift.

Hiding within your jacket was not unusual, so that was not what Zechs fixated on at all. It was that on the bar next to the man's drink was a respirator. Most of the times when you were in the domes you simply wore a mask or a scarf, to keep the dust out, respirators were for travel outside the dome. They usually had oxygen hookups you wore in a back with liquid oxygen and heavy duty filtration. The person had a set of goggles up on his forehead, resting and the jacket had a very thick coating of red ground.

He had to be traveling between the domes. The only ones who did that were engineers, transport workers, and occasionally scientists that were studying the world outside of the dome. To see that here was unexpected and set Zechs's nerves alight.' He sipped his drink again and carefully scanned the crowd in a different direction, trying to not be to blatant in his interest in observing the new stranger in the bar.

That's when he felt something at his shoulder and turned in his seat rapidly. There was a blade pressing close to his neck and black eyes staring into his own where he was sitting, "Hello Marquise."

Zechs's breath caught in his throat, before he slowly inhaled and recovered, stating as calm as he could muster, "Hello Wufei." When he didn't move an inch away from where he had planted himself, Zechs cleared his throat quietly and asked, "Would you care to have a drink with me?"

A smirk appeared on the young Asian's face as he stepped back and shook his head, tucking the small blade somewhere beneath his coat. "No. What I would like is to leave this bar and not have you follow me." He finished off his drink and placed the glass gently on the bar chucking ten credits beside it. "If you do I will not hesitate to kill you in the street. Is that clear?"

"Shiny." Wufei frowned and Zechs cursed his binge of old television shows. There was not much to do on Mars sometimes. "I'll stay here." Wufei pulled his goggles down and put his mask on the lower half of his face. He left.

Zechs was left starring at the bar for a good twenty minutes, before he swallowed the rest of his drink and headed back to his living quarters. As soon as he arrived he booted up his computer and sent out a message.

—

Une -

Wufei on Mars. Sighted twenty minutes ago.

—

Zechs always forgot to check the time difference between Earth and Mars. It would take a while to get through depending on the data streams the scientist may have been accessing anyways. Zechs removed his boots and coat, shook out his hair and stripped heading towards the shower.

After all this time and all the searching that the pilots had put in, Wufei was on Mars. It was eight months since Wufei's break out with the rest of the prison. He'd been in the top fifty of the Preventer's most wanted list ever since. And now he was here on Mars a mere five months since his last sighting in the warehouse by the pilots.

Zechs stopped thinking and let the warm shower wash off all of the dust and grime of the last three days. Showers were rationed tightly in all the domes as the recycling plants were under a lot of strain. If this was the only five minute shower he would get for another three days, he would enjoy it.

Zechs kept an eye out over after that initial meeting for the small form that was Wufei. He had put in word to the twenty seven other operatives that worked in the other nineteen domes to be on the look out for Wufei Chang. He didn't expect to find him, especially after a quick search of coming going ship's passenger manifests found no trace of the pilots arrival. Either he was using another name or he had found a way around the legal documented means of travels which was easy enough.

Still Zechs put in words to his usual contacts around sector dome eight and a few others in the other domes that he had made friends in to keep an eye out for Wufei.

Une's email had been to the point.

—Don't arrest him. Flip him.—

They wanted Wufei back and badly. He was an asset as far as Une was concerned, one that would turn the tide in the battle against rebel uprisings. New gun trade routes had been established with the guns that had been hijacked from the weapons depots; one or two mobile suits had been found operating and taken out with much effort. Drug trade was up as well. The only group from the leaders that had sprung free from the jail that seemed to be failing at every turn was the human trafficking one. Several men from his group had been found dead. A few hung, some executed single bullet to the back of the head. Most seemed to have simply vanished, including Donovan himself. Whether that meant that they had gone further underground or that they were simply getting sneakier was anyone's guess. Just that their routes seemed to have dried up a little.

Zechs had little to do over the week that followed after asking everyone to alert him if they saw the seventeen or eighteen year old that disappeared like smoke. Zechs had volunteered to assist some engineers on work crews to pass the time and engender more good will from the general populous. He was in the middle of the fourth day helping reintegrate electrical switch boards in the lighting systems of the dome when he received a call on his mobile. When he lifted the phone to his ear he heard the rough gravely, "He's here." Before saying a soft word of thanks and closing the phone.

He smiled at the guy he was helping and shrugged, "Sorry Mal, I need to go. My real job calls."

The nice engineer named Mallory shrugged and smiled, "It's fine. Duty does call occasionally." She turned away and began to fit a panel back into the unit. Zechs decided to take that as his leave. That had been the bartender on the phone, meaning that Wufei was back at the bar.

He picked up his pack and wiped the sweat from his brow. The temperature controls were doing their job today as it appeared to be around a nice twenty seven degrees Celsius despite the frost on the glass on the see through portions of the dome. It was always much colder outside the dome. He placed his respirator on over his mouth and carried his jacket. He had begun to wear his respirator instead of a scarf since he'd seen Wufei, in case he needed to go outside the dome.

Walking down the tight alleys between buildings to head to the bar was the only prep time to what he was about to say so he took his time. Honestly he had not expected to see Wufei again. He figured the boy would have left and never come back, so the call had come as a surprise.

By the time that he made it to the bar Zechs still had no idea what he was going to say to the undoubtedly un-trusting boy inside. He paused to think of an opening line before he decided to simply walk in. He spotted him easily at the bar, this time his jacket was off and placed on the chair he was sitting on, respirator and goggles sitting next to him on the bar. Zechs nodded at the bar keep who began pouring him a drink and he slung his pack on the floor next to Wufei's.

He put his jacket down over the seat and took the respirator off mimicking Wufei's easy posture on the barstool. He sipped his drink as Wufei did his and they were silent for quite some time. Wufei spoke up first, "I was wondering how long it would be until you showed up."

Zechs stated almost playfully, "Wouldn't want to disappoint you of course." He needed to disarm Wufei. He needed to get him to trust him.

Wufei half smirked half grimaced at that and Zechs internally cursed himself. Apparently that had been a wrong choice of words. This was like walking around a land mine. One that he didn't know how to navigate and never scene blueprints on. Hell the times he had met Wufei could be counted on one hand, most of his information was outdated from stories that Treize liked to regale for him about a young proud and honorable warrior that could do no wrong. The grown version of the child-warrior was next to him and he seemed to be far off shadow of the form he used to be.

They were silent for a spell, before Zechs tried again, "So how has life on the other side been?" Wufei froze and looked at him like he was an insane mental patient. Zechs thought about what he just said and started to slowly crack a smile. Here he was trying to chat up a criminal on the most wanted list of the ESUN and he just decided to ask the equivalent of 'What's up' Wufei smirked at him and Zechs couldn't help a small burst of laughter. Wufei followed shortly laughing, it sounded rough and gravely, almost unused but it was there.

When they both stopped about forty seconds after they had started they took a drinks and it was more of an easy silence then a strained one. At least Zechs thought so, until Wufei swallowed his drink and began picking up his stuff and getting ready to go. Zechs watched until Wufei began walking towards the door and he called out, "Why are you here Wufei?"

Wufei turned around with a smirk on his face and said, "Maybe I'll tell you next time."

* * *

TBC

* * *

- It's nanowrimo month So there will probably be a lot more updates where this came from. Yay for the readers!


	26. Chapter 26

Ch 26

* * *

The next time he saw Wufei meant a week and a half later. The same routine continued happening, where he received a call from the bartender stating that Wufei had wandered in and so he would come and share a drink with him. The situations were strangely surreal and certain topics were very carefully avoided. The pilots, the Preventers on any specific levels, and anything to do with the many current crisis the Preventers were fighting. It was unspoken more than anything. Not outlined beforehand, there were no guidelines when forging the weird and uncertain relationship blindly. Memories from the war often came up and occasionally personal life. Zechs never really had a problem when the conversations went that way, but Wufei always seemed to leave sooner on those days then on the days where they talked about nothing of consequence.

"What happened to Noin?" Wufei questioned, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. It had been another one of their chats three days after the previous one. Wufei kept him guessing. He never quite knew when he would show up, but it always seemed to be when he was near to the bar area anyways. Or at least not working on anything of consequence. It made Zechs feel like he was being tracked somehow. He didn't think so, but he would not have been surprised if it was true.

"She couldn't handle this environment." Zechs returned trying to school his face to neutral and knowing that he was failing. Wufei stayed quiet but turned more towards him with an eyebrow quirked.

"She struck me as stronger than worrying about taking a shower every three days."

Zechs took a long pull of his whiskey and motioned for another. "She is." Zechs defended. "She didn't come to Mars with the right intentions. I believe she came to Mars to be with me. Since I was not part of the package, she elected to be reassigned. I didn't stop her."

Wufei nodded and began picking up his stuff, getting ready to go again to do whatever it was that he was doing between their meetings. "What about you?"

Wufei paused tensing a little before half shrugging, "I have no one." He pulled his coat on and finished his drink.

"You have me. At least to chat with." Zechs said. Wufei paused and didn't look at him with any particular movements on his face. He could easily hide anything he wanted to, Zechs had been realizing over all their conversations. "How about setting up a time to actually meet up and chat. Like three days from now at eighteen-hundred hours?" Wufei began moving away without committing or down right shooting down the idea when Zechs called out, "When are you going to tell me why you are here?"

Wufei waved over his shoulder and said "Maybe next time." That's how their meetings always seemed to end. Maybe next time. Zechs didn't seem to know if he would ever get the answer out of Wufei.

It was still very much a puzzle of what he was doing on the red planet. Nothing had come through any of his other sources. He had no idea what he did in the days sometimes week and a half that he would be gone for, but he always seemed to show up at the bar. The bartender was the only one who ever found him because he would be sitting at the bar waiting to talk. Wufei was obviously very secretive and still in full possession of his ability to disappear if he needed.

He could hide whenever he felt the need apparently. He was an ex-pilot and despite his short stature and could more than handle himself. He seemed to be a lot older than what his age indicated, but that was applicable to almost all of the pilots.

The hard portion of all of this was in fact the Une and operatives side. He seemed to be getting messages daily from either Commander Une or one of the pilots demanding news of their friend. It was a sad sight for Zechs every time they sent an email asking for news, only to tell them that he appeared to have no desire to talk about them or on them or anything near that. All the conversations they had seemed to have no particularly important information in them either. It was babble and covered nothing of importance, unless of course if there was a subtext that Zechs just wasn't seeing and wasn't understanding.

He didn't think so though. Three days later after deflecting multiple rounds of questions from the pilots that were working on fires and uprisings, Zechs found himself in the bar a half an hour early. He didn't want to be late for this meeting, if Wufei decided to show of course. This would be the ninth time that they would be meeting in this bar. Wufei was a very skittish creature. He ordered his usual and ordered sake for Wufei, his typical choice, and waited. There was of course no guarantee that he was going to elect to show up today. But Zechs could feel himself get hopeful.

It had been a long time since he had company this steadily. It was hard to find out on Mars. He was the only Preventer working in sector eight, and despite the locals' toleration of him that didn't mean they wanted to have a drink with him either. When the stool pulled out next to him and Wufei spent time getting his oxygen vest and jacket off, Zechs was unsurprised to find himself smiling a little. "I'm glad you came." Wufei actually had a small smile on his face that was devoid of its normally fixed sarcastic and almost mean smirk.

"Well we did have an appointment." He set the glass down. "I'd hate to have disappointed."

Zechs turned to look at Wufei and reached out involuntarily. He stopped himself. "You have a red streak on your forehead." You've been outside the dome again I see."

"Are you trying to play investigator, Zechs?

"No, just noticing things." Zechs was tired of playing the quiet soundboard for Wufei, but still knew that he shouldn't scare him off. "You know the others have been wondering how you are. I haven't told them anything but they are very concerned.

Wufei didn't say anything and Zechs sat next to him quietly. He had done it he had brought up the other pilots. It was time to see what would happen. The silence dragged on, and Zechs had a strong urge to shake the teen, but he refrained. Waiting.

"They are not concerned with my well-being. They are tracking my movements." He spoke quietly and cleanly. Detached.

"The others care for you." Wufei scoffed. "They do. You haven't seen the emails they have been sending me." Zechs pressed on determinedly.

"They left me to rot in a prison. They were the ones that put me there in the first place instead of trying to warn me to stay away." Wufei was soft spoken during this short speech. "I only did what I thought was right during the war. I had a code, a system. No innocent people died by my hand. At least not on purpose. Yet I was the only one being punished."

Zechs waited to see if he was going to continue, but Wufei fell silent. So he picked up with, "They have found information about your prison time in an audit. They want to share it with you. But you are unwilling to meet them.

"Why should I?

"Because they care."

"Ha." It was a short sarcastic burst. From Wufei's mouth.

"They do Wufei. They are your friends." Zechs insisted.

"I have no friends." Dark eyes turned on him looking balefully from under lashes touched with sorrow. "I have learned that lesson the hard way. The sooner that people learn the same lesson the better off they'll be in this life." He began finishing off his drink in earnest. Not a good sign.

"I am your friend." That didn't stop him from getting up off the seat and beginning to vest up again. "Wufei, why are you here?"

Thick goggles were once again placed onto his forehead as a final touch. "Maybe next time I'll tell you." He turned and began to leave.

"Will there be a next time?" Zechs called to the back that was moving to the door quickly. There was no response. He hadn't expected one.

There was no sign of him for a long while after that. No call from the bartender, no him showing up mysteriously next to Zechs at a barstool. He had reported that much to Une anyways. By all accounts he was in the wind. The first couple of days Zechs was kicking himself for bringing up the other pilots, but he would come back to conclude, no, Wufei needed to know that he was in fact missed. The boy was misguided. Une enjoyed the knowledge that at least when Wufei was on Mars that likely meant he was not helping out Marcus, which was good. Wufei had become a one of the most notorious people in the ESUN on the Preventer watch list and many other organization's lists after they had figures out it was him giving away the notices of how to get in and out of the weapons depots. Also giving Marcus the information to which operatives were Preventer undercover agents. That had been a brutal day for the pilots. They had connected that those executed on the day that Duo Maxwell almost died, were from Wufei's knowledge when he went into the prison. Anyone that had been undercover before he went in had been murdered that day from Marcus's and Eckpo's group. Anyone who had gone undercover after had lived.

It was two weeks and three days before Wufei appeared again. And this time it was late at night at Zechs's apartment door. He looked very rough all over. Seemed slightly tired and not his normal self as far as the quick witted conversation occasionally dived into. The spark in his eyes and the infuriating smirk was absent as well. Zechs stepped aside and let him in quietly. Wufei dropped his pack in the entrance of the apartment and began to take off his many layers. It was obvious he had been out of the domes, in the open hostile environment of the Martian surface. It was summer so there was temps of about twenty five Celsius but that did not stop it from plummeting to well below freezing as soon as the sun went down.

Zechs went to the bathroom and filled a small bowl with hot water and got a small hand towel for him. "Sorry. It's not my day for a shower." Wufei nodded in gratitude anyways taking his final shirt layer off and began to slowly clean the dirt off of his body. Zechs didn't quite know what to do after watching Wufei's graceful movements for a while, so he turned to his computer to look up emails that were needing to be sent. It was a poor excuse when he had been so obviously sleeping before Wufei knocked on his door. But he needed the distraction. He didn't know why he had even let Wufei in.

It had been a long time since he was not by himself in his apartment. Noin had left a month after arriving and now he had this enigma in his room. One he had grown used to after all of their conversations. One that very much intrigued him.

He jumped as a hand lay on his shoulder and he turned in his chair to see Wufei sitting on the bed in front of him. Quiet and observing. "Why did Noin leave?"

Zechs's throat went dry as he contemplated the question. "Because she wanted something from me I could not give."

"Why?"

"Because she wasn't my type." Zechs continued quickly when he saw Wufei's eyes narrow. He knew what this felt like it was leading to, but he did not yet know if he wanted it to go in that direction, "She was more of a sister to me then Relena feels like. And I prefer other company." Wufei nodded solemnly and shifted forward an inch. "Why are you here?" Zechs whispered.

"Tonight? Or on Mars?" Wufei asked in return.

"Both."

"I'm here tonight Zechs because I am lonely." He leaned closer to Zechs and placed a hand in his long platinum hair. "I'll tell you why I am on Mars tomorrow morning." With that Wufei tugged him in close and there was a warm press of lips against his own. Zechs pressed forward gently meeting the pressure. Matching it. It felt so good after so long of being alone. It took a minute for the rest of his body to catch up but he moved eventually with his body pressing forward to feel Wufei. His shit was pulled off quickly as tongue met. Wufei rolled them over sitting on top of him and slowly kissing his way along his collar bone, licking a long strip of his neck. Zechs could only gasp and stare at the ceiling. Slow and languid appeared to be the pace Wufei was deciding to set and Zechs was fine to follow.

He enjoyed the feel of Wufei's muscles under his fingers, liked the strong pull of fingers in his hair, and enjoyed their tongues playing together. When their hardened groins met and ground together slowly he couldn't help the gasp that erupted from his mouth and enjoyed hearing a matching one from Wufei. He grabbed hold of Wufei's chin quickly as Wufei started kissing his way down Zechs's chest and made Wufei look up at him, "Are you sure you want this?"

Wufei snorted and for the first time smiled. "Yes." And his lips were on Zechs again and his mind went blank except for the feelings and the attempts to make this just as pleasurable for Wufei. Zechs flipped Wufei again and ground their groins together again hard and felt nimble hands dip below his pants gripping him encouraging him on.

It's what they both needed.

* * *

The next morning he was not surprised to see Wufei gone. It was disappointing, but not a surprise. The pack was gone, as were his clothes. Zechs laid in bed for a long moment, trying to reflect on the previous night. It had been good and he was more relaxed then he'd been in a long time. But he doubted he would see Wufei again, which caused a slightly depressing feeling start to invade.

He got up determinedly and went to the bathroom flicking the lights on there were several bite marks and bruises formed on his pale skin. He reached back and braided down his platinum locks. Heading towards the kitchen he found a note on the counter.

—

You've been asking me why I am here. Follow the map and you'll see.

- Wufei

—

There was a map on the counter below it. A small X on it outside of the domes in between number ten and number twenty. Zechs sighed and looked at the time. If he left within the hour he'd make it before the temperature began to drop again. Only the domes were temperature regulated and the Martian surface was hostile. Gathering his clothes for the external world he fixed on his respirator and goggles and stepped out on his way.

Taking the Preventer vehicle out the double air locked sealed doors he headed off through rocky fields. It wouldn't take long to get to, but he was concerned about what he would find. What could be taking Wufei's time outside the biospheres? There was nothing of value out here, nothing to be tracked or recorded. He had disappeared between for the last month and a half almost and Zechs still had no clue as to what he had been up to on Mars. Last night… seemed to fit and be out of place at the same time.

On the horizon something new seemed to appear. It was tall rising from the flat ground. The sun was beginning to disappear, which meant that the temperature would begin dropping rapidly with the thin atmosphere of Mars. As he drove up closer it appeared to be a large object attached to a pole of some sort.

He parked the vehicle and looked out the windshield and froze, stupefied at what he was seeing. A man was strapped to a pole upright. His limbs were exposed and blackened. Oxygen respirator was on his face Upper half of his face exposed for the dust storms. Zechs stepped out of the vehicle and moved closer. The man had been left to freeze to death, intestines had been left eviscerated from his abdomen hanging with frozen blood droplets, still intact, but exposed and bloody and alive when he had been left there to die.

When Zechs could finally turn aways from the gruesome sight he pulled a knife from the truck and cut the body down and put it into the back of the vehicle. He needed to make it back before sun down. His mind was carefully blank as he made his way back to biosphere eight. Attempting to think of what needed to happen. The body needed to be identified. The why of it and how the man died needed to be determined. Pulling into the domes airlocks to transport through the truck received it's normal wash down before it was permitted to enter the facility back to the Preventer post. He called the local medic to inform him he would need an autopsy done soon and then his phone rang.

It was the bartender.

When he made it to the bar after showing the medics the body, there was no sign of Wufei. Zechs was relieved at that. How could he have done something so vile to a person? After all these weeks to not see something that horrendous within the ex-Gundam pilot was astonishing to Zechs. He needed to tell Une as quickly as possible, report back that they did not want to use him as an asset.

The bartender handed Zechs a packet with nothing on it. He opened it slowly and a disk drive fell out. Along with a letter.

—

Zechs,

Since I've arrived on Mars I have been tracking the movements of Donovan, who you should know from the most wanted list. The body you may have found if you followed the map is his. You may not be able to tell depending on the weather last night so I thought I would tell you. I found him, beat him, cut him and dragged him out to the place you found him. I tied him up, stripped most of his clothes and cut his stomach open and left him with his respirator on last night. I don't know what he succumbed to first, the wounds, bleeding out from the stomach, or freezing to death. I just know it was a painful way to go.

Before you think I am a monster, what he did to my people made him deserve much more than this. I've been tracking down and killing every member of his crew. On the disk you will find a list of where the bodies are. As well as a list of sex clubs they supplied with children. Do with it what you will. I've had my revenge.

-Wufei Chang

—

Zechs shook his head and took the disk back to his apartment. Wufei had been exacting his revenge these last months, which is why Donovan's group had not been heard from. It was also why Donovan would have been on Mars. People only came here if they had nowhere else to go and Wufei tightening a noose had obviously made it that way for the man. Going over to his laptop he moved to stick the disk in and froze. His email was open. Every email from the pilots over the last few weeks was open. He had not left it that way this morning.

Wufei had broken in again after he left.

He sighed and began uploading the disk data to Une and alerting her to the new information he just learned. He notified Une that anything he had access to may have been compromised by Wufei accessing his terminal. It appeared that Wufei was off the radar again. Next time they saw him would be when he wanted to be seen. He was a ghost, an unpredictable, vindictive, killer.

Still Zechs could not regret last night.

* * *

TBC


	27. Chapter 27

Hello everyone! 3 days 3 updates. I am impressed with myself!

I wanted to thank Kaliko the Cat and ZmajGoddess for their lovely reviews. They fuel the fire that let me write quickly! (plus they make me feel special)

Now on with the fic!

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CH27

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The rain was hitting the roof loudly as it cascaded down heavily. Wufei sat alone on the porch staring out into the wooded area surrounding him just listening. He wasn't expecting anyone, just listening to the sounds around him. Trying to make sense of the world and forget everything about it at the same time. There was nothing for him to do this far north and chances of people finding him, when he didn't want to be found were remote. He established this safe house in the northern territories of Russia long ago, and kept it hidden from the other pilots. He did not doubt that they in turn had their own independent hovels to go to when needing to escape.

The cabin wasn't built out like one of Winners fancy mansions, but it had all he needed and was fully stocked in case of a situation where he had to spend up to a year inside the confines of such a house. The sound of the rain hitting the ground was relaxing on such a lazy day. He for some time had thought he would not have seen green trees or experienced things like this again. He hadn't had time to enjoy it. Not ever really. On his colony it was all simulated. During the war he had very rare opportunities, after the war was Preventers, jail, and hunting for revenge.

And now he could simply sit and wait and try to see what life could offer.

Not much as far as he could tell. At least that was the conclusion he kept drawing. He was lonely and had been betrayed and had no one. Donovan had been made to suffer; the Preventers had been impacted so heavily there were several violent and bloody uprising happening daily. He kept tabs on it despite his own conclusive popular thought and opinion that he shouldn't. The more he though on it the more regret he could feel seeping in.

Not his own, but thinking of what his ancestors would be thinking of him. He had been able to ignore it for so long, but they would be angry. Meiran would be furious. But his own soul could not let him be deceived again. Not by anyone, especially by those he trusted most.

So he hid in this shelter. Not knowing what to do. Only listening to the rain.

He stood up from the porch and dropped the blanket that he had wrapped around him to the floor. He stepped out into the rain and let the water slowly begin to soak through his clothes. It was cold, but felt good on his skin.

Heat was slowly being removed from his skin, vapors coming out into the cold air when he exhaled. It felt good.

When the rain began to fall heavier, he turned and walked back to the porch and grabbed the blanket to go inside.

There were several fully stocked shelved of food in the pantry and the book shelves were lined with novels he had always wanted to read and would have if he ever was stuck here long term. He might be at this point. He had no one to avenge. He was allied with no force in the ESUN. He was on the most wanted list and had been undoubtedly bumped up the list, he was sure, now that Donovan's entire gang had been dismantled by himself. That moment had been one of pure catharsis. The sound of the man's ribs breaking and shoulder popping out its socket. The oozing of blood as he ran his sword along the man's belly, letting his insides emerge.

He had deserved it; there was no doubt in his mind. Wufei had been able to track down one survivor out of what could have been hundreds from his colony and she had been strung out on whatever poppers her pimp had for her to keep her in line. The life had long gone out of her eyes and mind. The rest were gods know where or dead.

He shook his head and recalled his trip to Mars. Zechs had been a pleasant surprise during his stay Mars. They had established some sort of a rapport. It felt nice to have someone to chat with and the end result had gone over well. It had been a while since he'd slept with anyone… not since...

Sneaking in after he had left had not been his favorite idea, but Zechs had mentioned emails and he had been curious as to what he would find. Wufei had been furious with himself at first, how could he have let this weakness assail him? How could he have allowed himself to be tempted by the idea that something went wrong and the other pilots really were sorry?

But the anger slowly faded when he took the latest logs from Zechs's email, promising he would go over them later on the privacy of his own computer. Not when he was so wound up by some futile emotions he would sooner have lobotomized from his cranium the give into. He didn't want to even entertain the possibility that the pilots were in fact regretting their decision. That he had been wrong to hide for so long. Wrong to help Marcus and Trent when they had invited him into the fold.

He hadn't been wrong.

But he didn't know what to do.

The rain kept his attention as his thoughts ran in circles hounding after each other returning to the same pointless conclusions, the lack of a plan and the beginning to feel like he made a mistake somewhere along the line. He rarely second guessed himself, both before and after the war, but he didn't know what to do.

He was lonely and the idea of sitting in a cabin reading alone for the remainder of his life was not one he wanted to entertain at the moment. He could though. Just live alone in his cabin. The idea was certainly not as palatable as he wished it could be, but he could do it if needed...

Returning to Marcus's organization could be a possibility. They were still attempting to contact him since he left to hunt down Donovan's crew. That had been part of his deal working with them. If he helped get their stocks back up by hitting the Preventers they would help locate Donovan. It worked out for the majority of the situation... but the idea of becoming a gun runner was not too appealing. He could do it just to further destabilize the Preventers... but the body count for agents and politicians with the occasional civvies thrown in were getting higher. And if he had to go back he would have to face the situation that he ran into when he came back early from raiding the Preventer warehouse the last time. It could be unpleasant.

No returning to that life was not an option. If he went to live a normal life anywhere in the ESUN he could easily be tracked down. He was after all a criminal that was strongly desired to be caught. That wouldn't suit either. He would never be going back to prison. That he was sure of. He would rather kill everyone coming at him or die trying then rot in a closed place never to be free again.

Which left staying here or seeing what the pilots and Preventers wanted from him, the ones who betrayed him and left him alone for so long. They couldn't be trusted. The effect it would have on his psyche was much more damaging.

Treize should have killed him in that last battle. He was not supposed to have lived. Or Heero could have had the decency to shoot him out of the sky instead of denying him a warrior's death. Then he would have been fulfilled, have never been disappointed in the feeble bonds he had thought to be so strong, and never gone down a path of destruction that surely had Meiran cursing and attempting to kill him from the afterlife. That was still how he imagined her to be. A small smile flitted across his lips again.

Yes, Treize should have just done it.

An hour passed of watching the rain from inside the house once he stripped off his wet clothes and was wrapped up in the blanket again. He had been holed up in this place for two weeks and the relaxing portion had dropped into monotony. He had not cracked his laptop open to check the files he had stolen from Zechs. Or to see if there were any more emails from Trent. But it was poking at the back of his mind. Willing him to get out of his mopey state and make some form of a decision. To either get himself out or to dive in completely.

He got up off the chair and went to retrieve his laptop and loaded the files he had taken when Zechs went to discover his handy work. There were the recent updates from Mars. As he had predicted the Preventers had no clue as to the fact that Donovan had been on Mars. It was only through his tracking and tips from Marcus that he was able to find the man in the first place. Some interesting information gathering techniques with the lower peons before he killed them were also involved. The files he had taken had no mention of the man's whereabouts. Not that it mattered since he was dead now of course.

He popped open the first series of emails. Une spoke about getting closer to him to try and flip him. Wufei closed that email quickly. Zechs was only chatting with him under orders. If it had said to arrest him he probably would have tried, not that he would have been very effective.

The next series were from the other pilots asking what his fitness level was like, what Wufei's plans were, if he could get him to come back.

That's all they cared about. That was it. There was nothing else. There were several emails, but most contained the same thing. Asking about his situation, what he had been doing, if he could be convinced to come back to them. They wanted intel gathered on him. They wanted to know what his plans were, where he stayed, who he worked with...

They could just be worried.

Wufei shook his head trying to remove the errant thought from the back of his brain. That was not what they wanted and he knew it. There was a mention of an investigation into the prisons, but Wufei skimmed past it. He didn't want to see explanations for what he went through. He wanted that time to not exist.

It wasn't fair.

Skimming through the email logs there was one email that caught his attention. It was from Duo. Nothing in it asked for him or about him. It was to Zechs of course.

Can you ask him to check his war-time email?

-Duo

There was no explanation. There were no questions. There were no other messages from him at all, simply a short request to Zechs.

Wufei had not checked that messaging system anymore. It was the most secure he knew, but still the only ones who knew it were the pilots and he had no reason to communicate with them since they had placed him in prison to appease the government.

He closed the laptop and set it on the floor next to his chair and continued to stare out into the rain and the coming dark. He needed to make a decision soon. He just didn't know what to do.

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TBC...

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well there you have it I hope you enjoyed! Wow I have been productive with the chapters this week. I think that deserves some reviews ;)

-Ciao for now

Silverserpent


	28. Chapter 28

Wowwee - 4 updates in 4 days! I feel like a very sleepy rock star.

Thank you for the reviews, Fanruby, cheZaswulf, and Kaliko! (I'm glad it feels like Christmas has come early, Kaliko) You all make me exceedingly happy! And write more! :)

On with the fic!

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Ch 28

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The light flipped on in the front room and the clatter of keys hitting the metal bowl on the front table sounded echoing from the house's entry way. It was what was expected after a long day of work and coming home alone. The soft scuffle of kicking off shoes and padding steps on wood floors towards the kitchen. After a long day at work where she probably was too focused to eat, of course she would be hungry. She was probably grabbing the leftover takeout sitting on the third shelf and would wander into to her living room where her computer sat as soon as she reheated the contents of that container.

The microwave's soft noise of working to heat the contents of the box filled the silence and a sighing exhale matched the timing of the ding on the microwaves as it finished its task. All of the background noise filtered through the quite of the house and she traveled closer flipping the

lights on in the living room as predicated.

She jumped clutching at her chest and yelped. "Holy!" The plate of reheated takeout hit the floor, shattering the plate and leaving the contents of some vaguely Asian dish in a mess on the floor. Her eyes were wide.

"Good evening, Une" spoke the quiet voice interlaced with danger from Wufei Chang calmly sitting at her office chair. A glock was relaxed in his grip, but unerringly pointed directly at her. No pause or hesitation for his former boss. It wouldn't be difficult to shoot her anyways, they were enemies during the war and only a few months under her dictation as a Preventer had landed him in jail. He could shoot her and not even care the tiniest fraction. And the look of almost fear on her face matched that sentiment.

She sobered up surprisingly quickly from her shock at Wufei simply sitting in her living room. "How did you get in?" She shot out as soon as her breathing was under control.

"Really?" Wufei almost gloated at the stupidity of what he was hearing. "You find an ex-inmate that you had placed in jail in your home and the first thing you want to ask is how I got in? You are aware I was a Gundam pilot? You are aware that question is idiotic? And you are aware I will have no remorse in the slightest if I simply shot you dead right now correct?" He knew he sounded arrogant and he was fine with it. It's not like he would ever work under the Preventers again. Not after how the last time went.

She glared and dropped her hand from her chest and stood up straight, "Fine. How come you haven't simply shot me?" She was trying to maintain neutrality, but he could see the anger rolling off of her in waves. Une wasn't one to allow herself to be out of control...and this happened to be severely pushing her boundaries.

"Why would I shoot you?"

"Because you work for Marcus and yo-"

"Wrong." He interrupted.

"-what?" She spoke softly.

Wufei stayed neutral, no movement. Not giving anything away. "You are wrong. Or your intelligence gathering network sucks. I don't work for Marcus." Not anymore anyways and he hadn't for a while.

"But, you were on the raids for the warehouses!" She exclaimed, losing her composure.

"Ah yes. The raids for weapons. That did directly benefit Marcus, but I still consider myself to be more of a contractor in that situation, then a minion. I planned and executed those with crews of less than ten men in most of the disposal sites. I should be slated for upper management really."

Une nodded from her position standing next to the doorway. And Wufei motioned at her with his gun, "Please, have a seat. I wouldn't want to be a bad host right now, would I?" She moved slowly forward towards the couch he motioned to and her eyes darted to the fireplace and back. He snorted. "I've already removed your guns from the house and disarmed your security system without alerting your security company. I've had a lot of free time by myself today to explore."

She sat down and tucked her feet under herself. Wufei appreciated that. At least she knew she wasn't going anywhere soon and indicated it with a movement compromising position like that. He tilted his head slightly and smirked. "Continue again please. Why would I want to shoot you?"

She frowned slightly and said, "Because you think I left you in jail to rot."

"I think that do I?" The smile on his face was sharp and she shifted, obviously unsettled. "If I was going to shoot you, it would have happened by now. In this position, you should be more concerned with if I wanted to inflict pain on you. You were quite good at ordering torture during the war and I must say I'm sure I picked up some very useful techniques." She was quiet and Wufei looked almost serene sitting on the couch and facing her. "The question you should be asking is why. Why am I here?"

He stood up and walked across the room and back stretching his gun hand up to the ceiling and loosening his joints; he no longer needed to have his weapon trained on her to impress the meaning of his words. "It's true, I am angry that you had me jailed. Also the leaving me there to languish added quite the edge of blatant rage to my emotions." He moved the chair he had been sitting in directly across from Une as she stayed on the couch watching him move. "I am here to ask you some very important questions."

He sat down in the chair silently and starred. She wasn't one to flinch but this was not a Wufei she had ever encountered before. He seemed flippant and whimsical in a deadly unhinged way that not even Maxwell could quite pull off. Like he was toying with the idea of shooting her in the shoulder or the gut, not knowing what he was going to do simply knowing that he was going to shoot. "What are your questions?"

"Why was I selected for jail?"

"The blanket pardon only covered the war. Not anything after. You violated that by working with Mariemeia." She was sitting carefully not relaxed. If she answered honestly and straight, perhaps she would have a chance not begin executed.

Wufei didn't move and stated calmly, "Why was I not given a proper trial?"

"The judge violated your liberties and abused the rules of his position to sentence and keep you in prison. It was him. It was all him." Une was speaking quickly trying to convey what went drastically wrong, "He hid you in the system with help and we couldn't find you. The others tried to-"

"Quiet." His eyes narrowed dangerously as she had begun to elaborate, "What is happening to him?"

"He is being asked to resign" She looked down to the floor knowing that action was in no way adequate for the damage he had caused to Wufei and probably countless others.

Wufei laughed derisively and shook his head, "Is that all? You sure you don't want to give him a medal for his great work for the ESUN judiciary branch? No?" He refocused on her and state, "Let me get this straight. When you say he is being asked, you mean to say that he has not yet stepped down and will not be for quite some time." Une stayed silent. Wufei's deduction had been correct. "He won't be disbarred then is that correct? And what he has been doing won't come to light?"

"No." She admitted, "The system would collapse. People that were imprisoned for a reason, would get new trials or dismissed. It can't happen."

"And so the government sweeps the rights to fair trial of so many others." Wufei leaned back in his chair and shook his head. "I read Zechs's emails as you probably already know. What do you want from me?"

Une focused and looked up. This could be an opportunity. They needed him. "We need you to help dismantle the drug and gun runners. We know you've worked with them previously. We are very out matched in intelligence and weaponry. We've already seen two rebellions beginning that both had functioning mobile suits supplied by Marcus's group. Three senate members are already dead this last month. We need an inside man and we just can't get it."

"Why would I this for you?"

"Because you know what they are doing is wrong." Wufei smirked at Une's response and she looked startled.

"No I don't. I know who has wronged me. It wasn't them." Wufei returned.

"But.." she tried, "But you took out Donovan's entire crew... because what he was doing was horrendous."

"Ah." He nodded, "Yes I did. But that was for revenge more than anything else. Surely Zechs shared my letter to you and the information I gave. It's fairly easy to take out large organizations like that, but the prize was gutting him and leaving him to die."

Une sat quietly staring at him and Wufei let that thinly veiled threat sink in as for what it was. "Well then what do you want?"

"Ah. Your first good question." Wufei's eyes lit up and then he stated, "I want full immunity."

"Done."

"I'm not finished yet." He looked her dead in the eyes and continued. "I want my name off the most wanted list. I want a full pardon from the judge that confined me to the prison. I want to be there as he does it. I want full immunity from any possible back lash for any illegal actions both past and future that I may commit and I want it signed by every person in parliament and yourself. I want it to be so ironclad that if I went in broad daylight and shot Relena Peacecraft in the head no one could touch me. And I want full control over any operation I go on and I will pick what I want to work on."

"That's insane." Une stated.

"That's what I want."

"It's insane." She said again. "See reason, Chang. We can't trust you with that power. It's something I can't offer."

"Well, I refuse to trust you. Not after the last time. So unless you start first I believe we are at an impasse."

They sat in silence looking at each other until Wufei decided to get up and walk closer to her. "You can message me if you decide I'm worth it. But I have a feeling with all the Preventer agents and politicians that have been dying, you really have no choice. Which means your only option is that you must trust me." He smirked again and pause, "Now I'm terribly sorry Lady Une, but I'm going to need to knock you unconscious now."

"You're not sorry."

"You're right." He pulled his arm back, his hand forming a fist. "I'm not."

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TBC

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Oh snap. Wufei's getting meaner.

Ciao!

Silverserpent


	29. Chapter 29

The room's air felt thicker than normal as Heero entered the empty board room Une had designated for an emergency. There were no packets of information or laptops ready for a presentation on new mission specs that Heero was accustomed to seeing during the meetings of Une's elite squad. The pilots had become the leaders of severely difficult break operations once the undercurrent threat from Marcus's group became more main-stream. It was difficult to hide the fact that some resistance operation against the ESUN were now in control of a few mobile suits. Modern cameras and satellite surveillance made it much easier to capture what was happening and show it to the public. It was causing panic. Yes, the people still stood up for their peace, but this was a global weapons war of the Preventers organization against the black market dealers, while trying to stop new rebellions' recently surging attacks. There was tension mounting and the news seemed to display a higher body count daily due to violence instead of deaths from poor conditions in areas that had been fubar-ed from the many years of war.

Heero had still been up filing a report at 23:30 hours the previous night, when Une had sent an email, stating there would be a meeting with all the pilots. It contained no further information and was cryptic enough to agitate him to the point where his sleep had not been as restful as it could have been otherwise. Now they sat around the board room waiting for Quatre to arrive. Apparently another attack came to a senate member and he was coordinating the efforts of three teams to investigate, follow leads, and have damage control with the press coordinators of the Preventer offices.

Duo sat quiet and muted as he had been for many weeks; sitting far from Une and everyone else for that matter. The spark that he used to exude with every movement had become muted or non-existent for quite some time; since he had come back from his undercover operation and found the death toll had been high in the Preventer ranks. The body count had recently been exacerbated since the initial months because of the high rate of new recruits that were now being sent in the field with minimal training. Trowa was not in great condition either, but more physically then mentally. He had been on a team mission with other agents and a trap set with explosives sent shrapnel at him when he tried to push his team members that had unwittingly set it off out of the way. He had a broken arm in a sling per doctor's orders and a couple places on his legs and torso that were being held with stitches.

Une was acting unusual from her normal calm and composed state. Despite all the stress of managing a large peace-keeping organization she never seemed disordered. She never seemed unkempt. This morning she had bags under her eyes, her usually smooth hair, whether down or in a bun, had random hairs poking out at odd angles. And she was leaning her head in her hands and messaging her temples slowly. It almost looked like she had a bruise extending from her hair line but he couldn't be sure without approaching her more closely.

Heero did not like it. Her timing and the actions she was conducting this morning were adding up to something being extremely wrong, but Heero could not begin to extrapolate what it could be. He would have to wait to be informed and while a short break was probably a good idea from his exhaustion, he had never been one for patience

Quatre came in shaking his head and sat down less elegantly then he would have normally. "The senator's wife is dead. He is still in intensive care from the bomb in their house. The earliest possibilities are either he was hit because of the new trafficking enforcements he's trying to push or because the small rebellion forces in that region thought it would send a message. My alpha and delta teams are currently investigating." He looked around the room after his short, but no one moved either from disinterest or because this type of incident was becoming far too frequent to be shocking. Une nodded slightly and sat up more.

"I'm sure you are all wondering why I called you here this morning." She spoke quietly. "Last night, when I got home from work, I had an unexpected visitor. Wufei." Trowa sat up a little higher as did Heero and Trowa at this news. Quatre looked a little more focused but his overall demeanor of tired acceptance didn't seem to waiver. Duo did not take his eyes off the table, but his head tilted slightly. He was listening. Heero felt a little buzz of warmth; it was the first quirk of habit that was entirely Duo for a long time. "He waited in my house during the day for me to return home from work. He had searched my apartment hacked my computer to get files and updates the Preventers were working on, looked into files that I had brought home to work on." She cringed and continued grimly. "Needless to say I won't be taking more files home any time soon. And as a final surprise after the heart attack from seeing him waiting for me; he is offering to help the Preventers organization with the pressures we are finding ourselves under currently."

The room was silent under the announcement no one really knowing how to start especially when Une seemed to be hesitating in saying something. They could all read it in her body language and waited. Finally she exhaled a low breath and shot out, "He has demands. He won't work for us unless they are all fulfilled." Heero felt a swell of hope and the hesitant disbelief at the same time with her short briefing to them. The fact that Wufei suddenly seemed interested in the organization and assisting was strange and disorienting after the long stretch of time without him. They had made the initial decision to lock him away so that he would come out clean on the other side only to lose him in a corrupt system that was intending to keep him incarcerated indefinitely. That had been their fault and he had guilt for it. That he had worked out on his own in the many hours of waiting between missions.

But the time to think also left him wanting more affirmation that Wufei would actually work for them. He had not attempted to contact any of the pilots despite being free for so long. The initial break from the prison lead him to attempt to kill Trowa, work against the Preventers and work for Marcus as a gun procurer and an informant on many of the Preventer's agents and systems of operation. The only person he had contacted that was known to the Preventers and the pilots was Zechs and now Une. And despite efforts not to feel it, he was hurt by the lack of contact as Wufei seemed to continue to avoid them. No emails answered, no calls came in. It was tiring and maddening all at once.

"What are the conditions?" Quatre asked ever the master planner and the constant tempering force within the group.

Une attempted to compose herself slightly to her normal levels. She was far from it, but it was still improvement from the initial attempt at leadership that had been failing so miserably in the beginning of the meeting. "He requested that he got to select the missions that he went on. And who he works with."

"That seems reasonable." Trowa supported, "What else is he asking for?"

"Full immunity for any past present and future acts. He wants his file wiped from the system and he wants the immunity contract to be signed by all of the upper government and the head of the Preventers." She shook her head word caught in her throat. "It's impossible. We can't possibly give it to him. There's too much risk. He literally stated that he would want to be able to go in broad daylight and shoot Relena Peacecraft in the head and get away with no repercussions. It can't happen." The silence that followed was deafening as each individual drew into their own thoughts. Heero felt hollow. He never believed that Wufei would come back easily, but asking for that level of immunity was the most extreme thing he could request. He wasn't willing at all. He was attempting to hold them over a barrel bargaining his unbreakable freedom for the future lives of Preventer agents and what could be the break that they had been looking for to dismantle the problem that had been unleashed because of his initial break out.

This was what the warehouse had felt like all over again, the upsetting and complete disappointment that refused to give any form of reprieve from an onslaught of fights, explosives, and loss of life. It was war all over again, but they were a broken unit incapable functioning with any form of efficiency or victory. They needed him to cross over and their seemed to be no feasible way around his demands. But they needed him to be whole again, to work and function and be their normal selves. They needed him.

"We have to make the bargain." Quatre spoke assertively, no give in his voice.

"We can't. Une argued immediately, "It is impossible to get something that compromising signed. He'll be a loose cannon."

Quatre smiled, "He's already a loose cannon. We need him."

"What if he is simply trying to get access to our files and documents? What if he ends up being a double agent for Marcus?" Une protested. Her hands were compulsively running through her hair again in agitation. "We can't trust him!"

"We have to." Quatre argued. "The death toll this month alone is three hundred twenty nine politicians, agents, and civilians in the drug and weaponry related activities alone. That doesn't include the multiple uprising and the loss of the ninth colony in the L2 cluster to the drug market. They are running circles around us and we cannot get intelligence to save our own asses." Quatre let out a huff of frustration and shook his head. "We need to give him what he wants. It's the only way we will not eventually end up at war again. It will only be a matter of time before one group gets far too much momentum behind them to stop." Quatre insisted. He locked eyes with Une and willed her to understand. It was a blatant fact that she needed to face.

"We can't trust him alone." She said once more, but her resolve was dwindling, already forcing words of compromise out of her throat.

"We'll ask him to have a handler of sorts." Quatre insisted. "He should concede on that point and he knows it. There has to be some form of communication between him and us and it can't be him."

Une nodded, "Yes he had two more items he wanted that he had emailed to me this morning after he left last night. He requested that Duo be working with him permanently." Quatre looked over at Duo with Une's announcement. His eyes had gone wide and he sat up a little stiffer in his seat.

"We'll request that Heero also becomes a contact." Quatre resolved. "He can have Duo, but he needs Heero as well." Duo looked like he might protest, but decided against it and tucked himself down further into his chair and remained silent if a bit sullen.

"He also requested that judge Hadeling, the one that handled his pre-trial, is immediately removed from his position the day after he signs Wufei's papers for freedom." Une stated.

"That's easy." Quatre nodded, a dark look loomed on his face suddenly, "He should have been removed a lot sooner than this after we found out what he has been doing with some of his cases."

The room was quiet as Une and Quatre seemed to have worked out their logistics of working this deal. The other pilots knew that it was better for them to work out the details of these situations and to ask questions of execution after. Heero didn't really know what to think at this moment. Une was accepting the inevitability of needing the proposal that Wufei had suggested. She knew that the Preventers were cornered with Quatre's firm analysis and was accepting his idea.

Une sighed and spoke exasperated letting her head sink into her hands once more. The bruise on her head was more obvious at this angle. It looked as if Wufei had knocked her out the painful way. "It's going to be impossible to get the members of government to sign off on this. He's too much of a liability in their eyes. Many of them know what has happened."

Quatre nodded in agreement, but smiled somewhat serenely and stated, "Well then you have your work cut out for you. We need him."


	30. Chapter 30

Hello everyone. I am a terrible person for the long wait. Thought you out to know that I have 5 more chapters already typed out, but unfortunately I must have been drunk when I wrote them because they are atrocious. I'm editing like crazy, but will hopefully have more within the week.

Thank you to the reviewers from the last chapter! I'm so glad you have stuck with me.

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Ch 30

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The flight to New Tokyo had been relatively silent and was giving Heero time to think and process more then he actually needed to with the lack of information. He did not like the spare room and time to think after the months of constantly being in overdrive and attempting to plan out every detail on an overloaded plate of missions and demands from Une. It was unnerving. Previously it was only small gaps to dwell on his own personal problems, but sitting on the quiet and long flight with Duo and the Judge Hadeling as company was causing him to over analyze he did not think he should be.

The man had been ornery and filled with contempt since he had arrived on board. It had taken many days of coaxing and operating influences and flexing muscles on the part of Une, Relena and Quatre to get Wufei's immunity signed. He had looked it over after it had been scanned and emailed to him as well just to make sure it was up to his standards of absolute immunity and being legally binding.

Wufei had set up this spot for meeting and organization. They were headed to a dingy club that was operating in the basement of a gambling establishment and a front for prostitution. Heero had done some very thorough investigating before leaving for the mission. Heero had attempted to speak quietly with Duo while they had waited for the judge to arrive in order to establish some sort of plan. Duo had been less than receptive for it, which was both frustrating and confusing to Heero. Even during his recent bouts of quiet and apathy he still paid attention when planning missions.

The violet eyed boy had been slowly shutting down. It was concerning to be sure, but he insisted that he could continue to operate on missions. At first Heero had attempted to compensate for the new found quite that seemed to soak into the being of the group. Without the normal exuberance most of the group's tension had increased dramatically. It was a shockingly tough revelation after so long being a part of such a smooth and cohesive group. To think that Duo's clowning had served a purpose to them was astounding.

After Heero had found his endeavors to not be at all helpful in getting Duo to open up he stopped trying as hard. Stopped speaking of the statistics that Duo undoubtedly knew, the mission outlines that he could repeat to fill the silence despite Duo's knowledge to everything that was being spoken of. He could not handle it. It was oppressing. Even Quatre's attempts had been met with lukewarm acceptance and a lack appreciation by Duo. He simply refused to participate in many conversations. He existed in the missions. Duo was now more stealthy then he had been on any mission before, but in a way that not even the other pilots were able to predict his behavior without his normal cues. It also cause strain in the relationships that made them all such good partners when tackling missions. Injuries began accumulating. It was an unexpected knock on effect that none of them had the appreciation for before it had left them in such a desperate situation

The only one who had made any sort of progress in getting him to open up at all was Trowa and it was still limited. He talked quietly. And seemed slightly less closed up, but it never seemed to last more than a day. The boy who used to seem to have all the answers on how to soothe the souls of the broken boy's during the war had apparently lost his touch. He hadn't changed too much, which was something to appreciate. The lanky boy seemed to take everything in stride, but his recent injuries were still slowing him down. He seemed to be getting into more and more difficult and accident prone situations, because he was leading teams that were not well trained. It was a sacrifice he was willing to make, but he was one of the few who would tolerate doing such things out of the pilots. Quatre still remained more in a managing position, especially since he had influence with the Winner Corporation behind him and many key senate members.

There was a new quality of tension on the shuttle on the way to the meeting; Duo appeared to be actively ignoring Heero almost. It was a unique and strange, but it was raising his tension level. The judge's surly attitude was nowhere near helping matter either. He was disgruntled and angry at being strong armed into giving his position up the day that they got the last signature on Wufei's contract. After this meeting, where he had to grant Wufei his freedom to do anything and pardon him from anything he had been previously accused of, he would be let go as a high ranking judge in the ESUN. Of course he would be upset about it. There was no way he wouldn't be. Wufei was in the lead here and not communicating with Heero. He had sent the instructions to Une and Une had set up the meeting.

The shuttle began its decent and Heero attempted to relax. Dwelling on the issues would help nothing. He was going to help authorize Wufei's freedom. Perhaps he would get to speak with him. To apologize for him being the initial designer of the plan that trapped the proud pilot. Maybe it would help Wufei begin to come back to the group. They were obviously unstable without him. If the rapid downward spiral of the entire groups mental states were any sort of an indicator as to the overall health of the group.

There was a Preventer car waiting for them once they exited the plane without incident. The judge moved swiftly with an edge in every movement of his lanky body, obviously still angered by the developments, he kept his chin up and his eyes only had disdain and anger when they latched onto either Duo or Heero. They had not even bothered to introduce themselves to the man. He was the one that had tried to keep Wufei from them. Heero wanted to shoot the man for what he had done, but he still felt that his own actions were to blame as well. Duo simply refused to have his back to the man.

It was an action that spoke of his growing up in the streets background and the recent hits to his psyche. Duo the pilot would have been confident in his ability to sense what was going on behind him, but the mistrust for this man had him cagey. Even as far as sitting behind him in the car.

The establishment that the meeting was set to be in was a dingy building that was in a ghetto-suburb of New Tokyo. New Tokyo had been one of the areas that had recovered rapidly after the war ended, but the slums surrounding it became worse with the sudden 'clean' push from the city center. Those that could not afford to live in the cleaned up city were shoved into the tightly packed, half dilapidated buildings that made up the rough neighborhoods.

Heero glanced in the mirror and observed Duo staring fixedly out the window scanning over the slums and seeming not appalled or anything of the sort, more knowing. It was the same story just different details to him it appeared. Heero didn't have too much experience with this environment other than operating missions within these types of areas. On L1 he had seen the inside of labs and training facilities. Odin had always made sure they were well provided for as they worked as almost an assassin team together.

Judge Hadeling was sitting staring straight ahead and refusing to acknowledge anything. If he was caught unaware in a cross fire, Heero decided he wouldn't care very much what the outcome would be for this judge. He deserved whatever would come to him.

The address that they pulled up to had a spot out front that was marked for their vehicle. Wufei had made arrangements apparently. The building had neon signs dominating its siding as most buildings in the area had. The signs only advertised the gambling aspects of the club. The prostitution was offered inside. It was illegal activity, but it was so far down on the priority list for most law enforcement the clubs were not concerned about the open knowledge of their services.

Stepping out Heero led the judge by the elbow who attempted to remove his elbow from his grip. It was not released and he winced at Heero's increased pressure. He was their asset here and it was his job to not allow him to get into a compromising situation despite his desire to see a bullet in the man's head. Duo slinked behind them watching their backs.

When they entered the place was overwhelmingly dim from overhead and bright from the strange clicking and beeping machines for slots and new formats to lose money that were being played. Heero could easily calculate the odds of winning on most games and never managed to understand why the majority of the world believed that their luck was better than anyone else's, that they would be the one that would always strike at the correct moment when really it was just a game of the statistics. He wanted to leave the room as soon as they entered the facility. It was a place that could easily leave them open for attack despite the numerous patrons to the facility.

A man in a red sports coat approached them and motioned for them to follow. Heero knew that they were going to be greeted by a man upon their arrival that would lead them where Wufei wanted to meet. Heero had still not seen any signs of Wufei, but at least his plan appeared to set out exactly as he had instructed. He was probably observing them to make sure there were no other agents that would be stepping in to arrest him in the middle of this exchange. He had made it quite clear what the consequences of another betrayal would be and he was not at all trusting of the current government. Or any government really. He never had been. He always worked for principles and ideas in the past. Large political bodies had always been easily changeable he always said. Everything that had happened to him probably proved him right.

The man had led them through a door in the back that descended into a basement. It was also dim and not well lit. Heero nerves were tickling with tension and frustration. Positions like this always seemed overly compromising. But he'd do this. They had to get Wufei back and Heero needed to gain his trust. The room that they were led into off the dim hall had a table and a large leather couch in it. "Please wait here." The man said quickly, before turning and leaving.

"How long is this going to take?" Hadeling hissed. "This is a waste of time and valuable resources! This terrorist should have been left in jail to rot forever."

Duo glared from where he stood near the door, before spitting, "It is that exact frame of thinking that has gotten us into this mess in the first place you arrogant asshole. Because of your idiocy and abuse of the system" The man did not seem all that impressed at Duo's glare, but still he fell silent anyways.

The door opened again and the man in the red jacket had returned. "Wufei is here, he requests that Duo remain in this room and Heero Yuy and the other one follow me to the other room." Heero looked to Duo to see what he thought of this new development and he seemed fine with it. Like he had known that this was going to happen. The disconcerted feelings that he had on the plane returned quickly, but he repressed it. Duo would say something if there was going into a trap. Duo was still his best-friend according to the braided menace, though the last time he had said that was long ago.

Heero moved first down the hall, leading the judge again by the elbow. They came to a door that the man opened for them, but did not proceed into. He simply stood there waiting for them to enter. Heero stepped through and stopped still. It was Wufei.

After all this time, he was here in front of him. Heero did not know what he should feel at the moment: anger at Wufei's actions and never responding, guilt for what he had done to him, happiness at seeing the fellow pilot again? He stood still waiting to see what Wufei would do first. He looked tan almost rugged. He had lost his space born paleness over the last year and what was before him was something strong and seasoned. He had obvious muscles and gained about three inches in height, but his face still looked young. They were young physically if not mentally. It was something Heero often had to remind himself of considering that most people were always shocked when they showed up and someone so young could be their commander. His hair was pulled back and tied at the nape of his neck. It appeared that he refused to lose that custom from his past, but that was the only thing Heero recognized of his former colleague.

Wufei's face was so closed off and not exposing any thoughts going through his head. Nothing of him showed any recognition other than an overall dislike of being in the presence of these people. It appeared to be a necessary evil to him. One that he would not like to participate in again likely.

The judge pushed past Heero slightly, but stopped in the face of seeing Wufei standing there quietly. He cleared his throat and choked out, "You must be pleased to have strong armed us into this position." Wufei's eyes narrowed at the man. Heero could not quite believe the gall of the man. How could he be so ignorant to the way that Wufei obviously wanted to kill him? The certificate that he was about to sign would in fact give Wufei that ability and he had the nerve to speak so angrily against him.

"This is happening. If you will proceed to the desk it has been laid out for you to sign." Wufei spoke stiltedly with guttural undertone. Thinly repressed anger as far as Heero could tell.

"How do we know that you have not altered it in some way?" The man accused, not stepping any closer to the table, defiant.

"I am not the man who is dishonorable and attempted to steal someone's freedom away. That would be you." It was a quiet utterance of fact. Heero backed closer to the wall. Wufei was refusing to acknowledge him. He was only here to make sure the judge signed the document and it appeared as if Wufei was going to get that done regardless.

The judge's face flushed red with anger more than embarrassment, as other people's faces would, and he stepped forward to look over the document lying on the table. Heero had no doubt it was the one that Une had sent ahead to Wufei. He would not change anything in there, not because he was too honorable, that aspect of his personality seemed to have disappeared when he turned on the Preventers. No, he wouldn't have changed it because the contract was already giving him the power to do almost anything he could imagine without consequence and the ESUN couldn't punish him. Quatre had insisted and Une had agreed that they needed him. So it would be signed tonight.

"Why did you do it?" Wufei asked quietly eyes narrowed. The man looked up and glared at the teen. It was obvious he was deciding whether or not to answer the person that he had attempted to seal away into a prison cell for the remainder of his life. Wufei continued quietly, "The two men that brought you here today are also ex-Gundam pilots, ex colonial terrorists. You do not show them nearly a fraction of the anger you have towards me."

"They're heroes." He ground out.

"So am I." Wufei responded with a smirk.

"Not to me!" He spat with vehemence. "You are less the vermin. I don't care that you were one of the Gundam pilots! I lost my son because of you! He was a pilot in training at the Victoria base. You murdered him while he slept!"

Wufei began laughing. It was a deep throated laugh as if he was clearly enjoying it. The judge reared back as if it slapped. Heero stood froze against the wall. He used to sound like that after particularly viscous battles in Wing at the beginning of his missions for the colonies. Wufei smothered his laughter quickly after ten seconds and looked at the man with mirth. "You wanted revenge." He gloated. "Because you couldn't get your petty revenge, you thought to keep me locked away forever." He waited to see if the man would protests as he appeared more and more on disconcerted by the second. Wufei grinned viciously. "Because of your inability to abide by the ruling of a blanket pardon, you now have the strongest illegal gun and drug operations that have been known in modern history. You have a huge number of assassination of political figures, the highest number of civilian deaths since the war, and it's all because of you." He was gloating. Every muscle in his body taunt with adrenaline. "If it wasn't for me you'd have a very strong human trafficking ring and now the entire government that runs the world can't penetrate these rings and is relying on me. All of this because of you. You fucked peace for the entire world over because your son was training to be a pilot in the war and you couldn't forgive his death. He was going into war, you imbecile; what did you think would happen?!"

Heero stood silently in the corner. Watching Wufei's words hit home in the man's silence. He did not seem able to believe the words, but wasn't protesting them at all. Wufei was right in away. And the man seemed hurt by it. Disgruntled and crushed.

"Sign the paper. I'm the only hope you have at redemption now. Ironic really."

The man mustered up the strength to glare at Wufei but turned dejectedly and signed his name at the bottom of the long list of other signatures on the paper. Wufei stepped forward and rolled it up taking it in hand. "When does this go into effect?" Wufei questioned.

The judge stood up looked down his nose at Wufei, "Tomorrow." He stated stiffly

"Good." Wufei replied and backhanded him across the face. "You sealed your death the day you refused me fair trial with council. This just makes it easier." He turned on the spot and left the room not acknowledging Heero's presence at all except for a harsh whisper, "Don't follow me." And he was out the door.

"Aren't you going to do something about that?!" The judge yelled at Heero as Wufei left the room. He was holding his cheek as blood turned his spit pink from undoubtedly lose teeth. Heero shook his head to the accusation.

There was nothing he could do. Hadeling had gotten off easy. He deserved worse.

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TBC...

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There we go. Longer then ususal, but hopefully entertaining enough. Reviews please!

-Silverserpent


	31. Chapter 31

Wow this is going quickly. I made a goal of posting within three days if I had one more review then the last chapter. Which I have received! Thank you to Kaliko the Cat, yesterdays-lover, and A!

Here is the next chapter as requested by Kaliko! Sorry yesterdays-lover about it being slow and not action packed at the moment, (the pace is pretty slow), but I swear there will be more action! To make up for it I will be posting two chapters at once. (That way we will get to the action sooner maybe? I hope this works for you)

On with the fic!

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Ch 31

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Duo felt the tension rise as his heart leapt when the door came crashing open. Wufei was standing in the doorway eyes shining, but demeanor stiff. "Follow me." He stated and turned and left. He expected to be followed at this point. Duo jumped into action from where he sat on the couch, bolted towards the vacant doorway and bounded after Wufei who was proceeding back towards the main gambling floor. He had a bunch of papers in hand, so his goal of obtaining his freedom to do anything appeared to have worked. The deal had been signed and his task here was done.

Arriving back in the room with the noisy bright slot machines, Wufei turned and double backwards to another door that led to an alley. There was a black vehicle waiting there with tinted windows. Duo was unsurprised when Wufei walked around to get into the driver's seat. Taking initiative he hoped into the passenger's seat under the assumption that he was supposed to tag along. Wufei would surely throw him out if he was mistaken. He was relieved when Wufei simply started the car and began driving away from the noisy lights and the cacophony that had been assailing him since they entered the facility. It was undoubtedly why Wufei selected the location. It was turf that he seemed to know well and have previously scouted. The atmosphere had been disorienting and directional microphones would have had issues in the environment even with the best techs attempting to fiddle with the sound filters.

Duo eased himself back into the seat and did not bother looking at Wufei. He would hopefully be getting to see a lot of him if he was allowed to stay in his presence for whatever the next step was to be. Une had simply stated that he would have to report back to the Preventers at a minimum of once every two weeks. If not to her directly then through Heero, Wufei's other handler, whom Wufei had already managed to squirrel away from already. Duo didn't mind the implications. Heero was probably trying to analyze every nuance of what just occurred in whatever meeting they just had. Duo had grown rather tired of that. Heero didn't have an innate understanding of people's emotions and he knew that. He even accepted that about his friend, but lately Heero had been probing and trying to analyze everything he had been doing and it had been getting irritating. Living under a microscope was not ideal.

He wasn't going to put Wufei under that kind of microscope either. They drove in silence and Duo relaxed further into the seat and stared out the window at the slums. It was apathy really he was feeling. Not any kind of a link to the passing surroundings, just a silent observing status. The minutes went by and neither spoke', but Duo felt the vibrations of the car's tires on the road and Wufei's steady presence driving them to wherever he deemed safe enough to stay. It was like an evacuation post mission. He knew he would be safe where ever they ended up. He felt his eyes begin to drift shut and he didn't stop them.

When Duo woke up it was because the engine had shut off. It was early morning if the light just breaking over the tree tops was any sort of an indication. He had no idea where he was. He could check his gps on his phone, but the need to do so was not very high. He blinked his eyes and looked over in the driver seat. And Wufei was looking at him, just observing. "We here?" He asked and stretched in the seat. Wufei nodded and opened the door to get out.

Here turned out to be a small cabin structure sheltered under trees and bamboo thickets. Whether they were natural or planted Duo had no idea. He was not a green thumb being from a run-down colony cluster such as the L2 clusters. The air seemed cleaner than in most of the city areas he was used to visiting and it sounded like there may have been a river near by somewhere in the area surrounding the house. He cautiously stepped out of the car and followed Wufei to the front of the building and watched him slide open the door before stepping in.

There was not much inside as far as he could tell. The furniture was simple with clean lines. Functional. The kitchen was off to the right of the entry. There was a longish couch and a book shelf with books stacked and crammed to make them fit. The hallway towards the back probably contained the bathroom and hopefully bedrooms where they would stay.

"There is only one bed so for now you get the couch." Wufei spoke up suddenly. Duo nodded and watched him walk off down the hallway. He did not know what he was doing here. What Wufei could possibly want from him. He distracted himself by going to the book shelf. A lot of them were in asian characters that he had no means of understanding. Wufei came back and tossed white sweats and a tank top at him. He looked them over and uttered a soft "Thanks."

Wufei nodded, "I need to get some sleep. If you come to the backroom, I will likely shoot you. You are free to walk the grounds or to anything in the kitchen." He turned and retreated to the bedroom. Duo looked down at the clothes in his hands. The white sweat pants. The tank top.

He was in one of Wufei's safe houses from the war.

That knowledge somehow took the air out of Duo's lungs and he sat back onto the couch. They never shared each other's house locations. Sure they had multiple. But that at least meant that he must have trusted him somewhat? Duo smiled slightly as he gripped the clothes closer to him. Heero had been feeling further and further from him as of late. But suddenly it seemed that Wufei was coming closer. It was the first glimmer of happiness he had felt in a while. Hugging a pair of sweat pants.

As soon as he was able to summon enough energy and thought to get himself off of the couch Duo had looked around the kitchen, went to the bathroom and headed outside to explore the grounds. There was a stream that was running near the house. It was quick moving water over a shallow bed of smooth rocks. It was midafternoon and he had his feet sitting in the stream. The water was surprisingly cool, but he could sit there for a long time he had decided.

The soft rustle of vegetation being moved to the side alerted him to Wufei's approach, but he didn't bother removing his feet from the water. Wufei would be able to talk to him whether his feet were in the water or not.

Wufei sat down with his legs crossed in front of him a few feet off from where Duo sat with his feet in the water. Duo looked over at him. He looked older, but then again he had to be at this point. It had been well over a year since he had seen him in person, before the group of them had helped retrieve him to put him in prison. Duo hadn't wanted to, but the convincing had done its work. He had played his part and helped his friend be imprisoned. "Why did you pick me?" Do asked suddenly he had felt compelled to for some reason. An urge that couldn't be repressed.

Wufei looked at him straight and stated, "I read your emails." It was an innocuous statement, but it definitely had meaning. His heart clenched ferociously for two beats two long and began again thunderously. It was sure to be detected by the other teen sitting there and observing him. He looked away to the rocks in the bottom of the river. Watching the waters ripples and bubbles cascading around them. "We won't talk about that now." Wufei continued. "We'll get to them in time. You sit and relax for right now." When Duo didn't respond Wufei nodded as if he had been expecting that and got up from the ground. "I'll be inside if you need me." And then he was gone.

They kept apart for the remainder of the day. Duo was not thinking about much. He let his fingers run through the blades of the grass and kept his feet in the water until his toes went numb from cold. He eventually rose from the grass and brushed the dirt and debris from his pants and went inside. Wufei appeared to be busy in the kitchen, the food smelled delicious, but Duo veered away from the smell coming out of the kitchen and grabbed up the clothes that Wufei had handed to him earlier and headed for the bathroom to shower.

He still did not quite know where he stood with Wufei. The emails he had sent were… quite personal. It was as if he had been writing a journal. He knew that there was always a possibility that Wufei would eventually open up the war time network emails and see what he had written. That thought had never scared him that much. But now some of the things he wrote were starting to flash through his mind quickly causing a strange combination of absolute panic and staggering relief that Wufei had read them. Wufei had done what he asked when he emailed Zechs, but that did not mean that Wufei was excepting him as family again, because that was what the group had always felt like to Duo. A family.

He knew better then to get attached to people with his history of the street living and Maxwell church, but he also knew that individuals were never nearly as strong as in a group. Wufei seemed to be defying that thought at every step this last year, but at the same time he had come back into the fold in his own way. Attempting to negotiate his release from having to be hidden at all times and requesting Duo as his contact. So somehow Duo had always lived under the impression that you shouldn't get attached but you shouldn't work alone. It seemed he was never very good at the don't get attached portion of this ideal. But that was something that he would have to confront another time.

He stepped out of the bathroom in the white sweats and tank top after he re-braided his hair as was his customary style. He walked into the kitchen to see Wufei sitting at the table that was off to the side with another dish filled with food sitting across from him in front of another chair. Duo took that as his signal to come over and he did. It was some form of vegetables with meat and rice. Probably better than most of the food he had been consuming on missions over the last month anyways so he dug in and began munching as quickly as he could muster. It was silent Wufei would occasionally look up at him and Duo would feel the weight of his glances, before he would return to eating.

Duo finally cracked after one of the looks and blurted, "I'm sorry." And then he promptly began a choking cough on rice that he inhaled. Wufei looked up at him and set down his utensils and waited for the coughing spasms to stop.

"What for?" He questioned.

"For my part in the initial plan. For alienating you. For leaving you and not being able to get you out. For not visiting you in jail. For not just exploding the jail when we thought you were there the first time at four months." Duo stopped short clicking his teeth shut. He was rambling and he looked down at his food and picked up his fork again poking at the green things that were on the rice.

Wufei shook his head and exhaled deeply before whispering, "It's fine."

Duo shook his head rapidly back and forth. "No it's not Wufei. We left you there. We captured you and led you to prison because they told us to. That was no way to treat a… treat a… fri-…" Duo trailed off. He wasn't sure how Wufei would react to being called a friend. Friends would not have done what they did. They would have warned him about what was coming. What was going to hit them.

"I'll admit." Wufei began and then paused. He shook his head trying to decide what he was going to say to the brown haired teen before him that was broken in his own way. "I was very upset when you planned and executed my capture instead of warning me. I'm still very… angry when I think about it." Duo winced at Wufei's words and his emphasis at the word 'very'. He had been expecting them, but that didn't make it any less painful, "While you didn't visit me in jail was upsetting in a way, I did appreciate your cookies the one time I received them." Duo risked looking up at Wufei, but he was looking down at the table. Talking of emotional subjects tended to strain all of the pilots. "As for using explosives on the jail, while I am sure you were good, I'm glad you didn't since you didn't know where I was. It would have been a terrible way to die after all we've lived through. It was the judge and the warden of the jail that kept me in there, not you all. I found out recently that the warden was benefitted by helping the judge. He was allowed to keep his position after he had landed in very serious trouble for taking bribes."

Duo took another bite and pondered what Wufei had just said. Wufei still may or may not be angry for his initial part in the plan, but everything else that Duo seemed to be feeling guilty about was not really a concern of his. "Well then why are you still angry with the others?" Duo cursed himself inwardly after his mouth just opened and shot that out.

Wufei lifted an eyebrow at his question and leveled a stare at Duo, who shrank into his seat slightly. "I found out through some of my new 'friends' in jail that you were searching for me through some unsavory contacts and that you had been for quite some time."

The sentence hung in the air between them and Duo started up saying, "Well the others -"

"Let's stop talking about this now." Wufei said suddenly. He obviously did not wish to discuss the other pilots. Dup nodded and picked up his utensils again to keep eating. They were silent for some time when Wufei spoke up again, "You know that while you work with me I will be killing people, correct?" Duo nodded. He has assumed as much with Wufei's new contract. "I serve myself now more than anyone else and I just don't care to reiterate that in the future if you begin to feel strange about what we are doing. This is a war all over again - whether the Preventers and the public believe it or not."

Wufei seemed to finish at that point and picked up his dishes to drop into the sink. He moved off from the kitchen and back to the bedroom. He was abruptly done with the night apparently. Duo was both relieved and confused by his departure. They had not discussed what would happen from here. Not really. They had not discussed the emails that he had thought he had been sending to the nether-regions of cyber-space. He had simply decided that he was done for the night.

Duo finished off his food, but noted he felt a lot more comfortable with the situation then he was before. Wufei didn't hate him, but he didn't seem to like him either. He only had half the things he needed to feel guilty about confirmed which was an excellent load that he didn't quite believe he was relived from. He finished his food and went to the sink. Instead of dropping his dishes in to join the others he picked up the sponge and began running the water hot. Wufei had cooked. It was only fair that he cleaned.

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TBC...

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And right now... I present the next chapter! Awesome.


	32. Chapter 32

Two chapters in a row. BAMF

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CH 32

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The screams that were echoing through the metal doors were high and frantic, joined by the thuds of tiny fists beating the metal hull attempting to stop. Looking through the thick glass window the frantic bobbing heads were visible as were the wailing mouths open in terror.

Alone in the middle of the group stood. A boy staring. Solo.

He pressed the button and the bay doors opened pulling them quickly and bloodily through the gap de-limbing the ones that got caught on the hanger doors.

Duo jolted awake screaming from his dream sweating and panting heavily. Eyes wide and unseeing.

The lights snapped on around him and he darted sideways off of the couch taking cover behind it crouching low and peering over the end muscles taunt running on instincts and adrenaline. Wufei was standing in the hallway gun drawn scanning the room quickly for an enemy. His eyes were sharp and came to Duo's form and lowered his weapon stopped in the hallway.

Duo stayed crouched looking at Wufei and Wufei looked backed, confused look slowly being transformed into one of understanding. Once his rapid breathing calmed and his pounding heart stopped beating so rapidly in his chest, Duo came out of his low hunch position of shelter and stood up. He tried to not be defensive, but it was always a tough showing weakness in front of another. It was a vulnerability that each pilot ingrained in them wish they didn't have. And twice as hard wished they didn't expose. Duo scratched his head and whispered a soft, "Sorry." Before moving to sit at the end furthest away from where Wufei stood still in the hall.

Wufei stepped forward slowly to the couch and said, "It's okay." He hesitated a moment, body language saying he did not know whether to retreat to his bed or stay. "Nightmare?" He asked hesitantly. Duo nodded and Wufei suddenly dropped to the other end of the couch. They sat quietly together both still as statues on either end of the couch for what felt to Duo to be an eternity. Really it was only thirty seconds or so until Wufei questioned, "Would you like to talk about it?" He cleared his throat and continued, "We all have nightmares Duo."

Duo looked up at Wufei at that moment and really saw him. He'd been in his presence for just over twenty four hours now and he had not really stopped to look at the teen. He had his dark hair loose around him and was shirtless, probably from being awoken so abruptly undoubtedly because he must have been screaming outside of his dreams as well. He had been taking good care of himself it seemed. More muscular for sure then the boy that had been the pilot of Gundam zero five from the war. He did not have the dark circles under his eyes that the other pilots had for at least the last eight months. He looked healthy and confident in himself. It was a concept so foreign to Duo at this point he wanted to crawl up and cry a little.

"I already told you about it." He admitted quietly. The emails. The endless emails. He hadn't decided when he had started to send them. Only that it seemed to help him when it was too much. When he was alone for too long. When the dreams were at their worst. Wufei was right when he said that they all had nightmares. You did not live through what they all lived through and not have them. But the recent ones were the ones that were killing Duo. They were the ones that were hurting him and turning him into a desperate being spiraling in depression. He knew it, he recognized it. The only that kept him functioning was knowing that Father Maxwell would be disappointed in him if he gave up so easily. Suicide was a sin. Whether he believed it or not Father Maxwell would have been very disappointed in him. That was one more thing he did not think that he could handle.

Wufei looked at Duo's still form and watched the emotions cross over his face. He was contemplating his demons it appeared. "I know that you have already told me about them." Wufei stated in a low tone that Duo supposed was meant to be soothing. "Do you want to talk about them now? Out loud?" Duo looked up at the black eyes that were gazing at him solidly. There was no disgust on the teens face; he was offering to be there for him. At least for right now.

Already he had spilled thoughts on the matter, just via the messages. Perhaps actually admitting them aloud would be a new concept he should try. If only to torment himself further, if nothing else. "I killed all those kids Wufei. And in the dream I just do it over and over and over again and watch it happen."

"Yes I know." Wufei said calmly.

Duo frowned at that, "How can you be so calm? It was a terrible thing I did. And it was for three different runs."

Wufei nodded calmly in the face of Duo's panicking admission. "We have all done terrible things Duo. If you had not done that you would have been jeopardizing your life and the mission that you had been given. You are forgetting that I too, have jeopardized your life by helping Marcus identify those that were undercover agents from the Preventers. That was arguably a terrible thing to do." The teen did not look away when he admitted this. It was almost like a simple statement of fact. One that he did not care whether he was admitting something he had done terribly or not. It was not a problem to him. "I was angry with the Preventers after being sentenced me to prison, so I turned on them and listed off any known Preventer with photos that were undercover agents. What Marcus did with the information was his prerogative. Many would assume that I should be upset by the outcome that had been doled out from that. I am not."

Duo sat still he didn't know why Wufei would be telling him this. It didn't seem to be a way to comfort him at all. He continued, "You Duo, are suffering because of orders you were given for a mission by the Preventers. What you did on that mission was for them and unavoidable in the position that you were put into. You should not be feeling guilt for what was made for you to do. It was not your fault it could not have been your fault. If you had a choice you would not have killed them. You know that. I know that. Everyone who knows you knows that. You need to learn to forgive yourself."

Duo sat eyes transfixed on Wufei. "It's not that easy." He still felt slightly lighter after Wufei's short speech, but it really wasn't that easy.

"It never is." Wufei said back. "I know that many of my problems were caused by forces outside my control. Any reactions that I am making after are choices, but they are also the consequences that the government has brought upon themselves. Individuals should not be the only ones with consequences. Governments should have to face them too."

Duo just watched Wufei and Wufei watched him back. Duo had felt himself relaxing a little bit by bit as their conversation progressed. It was comforting to talk without any real consequences. Any time Heero had gone on an information seeking expedition from him he invariably attempted to analyze and find a disarming response to every syllable that would be uttered between them. Duo no longer trusted Quatre. He was too enmeshed in the work to be his normal caring self, even since the break down that he had when Duo had comeback from his fateful undercover operation. And Trowa… He somehow exuded comfort normally, but for some reason he had not been feeling that same sensation from him on their last couple encounters. The man was stony and silent to the point that it almost felt like talking to a wall. "I missed you." Duo whispered.

Wufei smiled with a small upturn of lips before it disappeared just as quickly. "I know that you had other concerns with the other pilots. I suggest you think on them and what the source of the problems could be. Now it is late. I suggest that we sleep. We will be spending time until we grow a little more accustomed with each other and I will tell you the next step.

Duo nodded and sank slowly down onto the pillow that was at his end and curled his feet up a little. He had a frown across his face and felt it grow a little deeper as Wufei got up off the other end of the couch and retreated slowly to his bed room. He sighed into the empty room and tried to not think, to close his eyes and pray for dreamlessness. A soft scuff of feet padding towards him had him sitting up and looking up over the back of the couch. Wufei was standing there with a comforter that was pulled off of a bed it appeared. "You look like you would like to not sleep by yourself tonight." Wufei stated. It was a question and Duo knew it to be one. So he nodded and lay back putting his head on the pillow at the far end of the couch.

Wufei flipped off the light and came closer dropping his pillow at the other end of the couch. He lay down and tossed the comforter over both of them and their feet met briefly in the middle before they both settled down. It was nice. And somehow exactly what Duo needed.

When Duo abruptly woke the next morning it was to Wufei slipping off the couch. He froze and looked back to see the violet eyes peering at him. He muttered bathroom and stepped off into the back hallway. Duo stretched out on the couch gathering the blanket back over his head to hide his face from the light coming through the window.

It took a full minute before he poked his head back out and looked to the window. It was bright outside. He had slept through the rest of the night. That was the first time he had done that in weeks! He lay there stunned, before he heard Wufei step out of the bathroom and come around to the kitchen area. Duo hopped up and headed to the restroom while it was free. Looking in the mirror he saw the same sight he had seen for the many months before except this time his eyes were puffy from the amount of sleep that he got. He leaned down and rubbed the grit from his eyes before brushing his teeth with a tooth brush that had been left out in the packaging. Wufei seemed to be supplying everything at this point. He should start figuring out where he was keeping everything he supposed.

He walked out and spotted Wufei heating up tea and cooking on the stove again. The man seemed completely at ease in such a domestic setting it was strange. He sat at the table and was surprise when five minutes later there was a mug of tea in front of him. And eggs and toast were being served up right behind it. "Sorry I don't have coffee." Wufei apologized.

The whole situation seemed surreal. So long without seeing him and there was a healthy non-agitated stress free Wufei sitting before him handing him tea and eggs. "Why didn't you contact us?" Duo blurted. And immediately felt himself turning a little red from his question. Of all things to ask, why the hell would he have asked that? Surely it would end up with them in some form of an argument. How could he have been so stupid?

Wufei smirked at him over his tea and took a sip. It was such a Wufei look Duo couldn't help but laugh. When he started he could not stop. His eyes were watering his throat was hurting and his sides were feeling like they were going to burst before he was able to gain some semblance of control of himself and he wheezed out, "Sorry. I'm sorry." Wufei just shook his head and ate his food. Nothing seemed to faze him anymore. He was a new Wufei. He had changed. Not a concept that was entirely alien to Duo, but it was not what he was expecting either. At least not into the person before him who seemed so cool and confident. It was irrational, but it just wasn't what Duo had been expecting when he accepted the proposition of Wufei and him working together.

"To your question I will simply say that I was angry and hurt from your betrayal." He didn't seem to be accusing when he said it. It was like he just accepted it as part of what was going to happen. "I have not forgotten it by a long shot and at this point I am not rushing to repair any relationships that were so easily torn asunder in the beginning."

Duo watched him and thought for a while. "Why me?" He asked again. It was a concept that he wanted to be thoroughly familiar with. Why had Wufei decided to bring him into the fold?

"Because it was the peace that damaged you, Duo. And it was done by the same organization that damaged me." Duo wanted to protest. To say, 'No, it was your activity that caused the mission I went on'. But he couldn't say it for some reason. Wufei had a point. It seemed like poor logic, but he had a point. One that was surprisingly comfortable in Duo's head.

"I killed Donovan and his entire crew. At least the upper echelon." Wufei said again. His eyes were fixed on Duo, but Duo refused to meet his gaze. He nodded in acknowledgement he had seen the report. "They were never supposed to leave he jail. I want you to know that. It's why I hunted them down and left the list of the remaining personnel with Zechs. You were never meant to have been exposed to the brutality of the human trafficking. That was supposed to end before it even started." Duo looked up locking eyes and he couldn't help the tears that welled in them making his eyelashes damp. He wiped his eyes with his forearm and sniffed.

"Didn't get to see pictures of the bastard. How'd you do it?" He asked, rubbing his eyes dry one last time.

"Found him and beat him unconscious after several hours of torture. Took him out to the Martian surface between the domes, strung him up with and oxygen tank cut his belly open and left him there." He said matter of fact. "Still don't know whether he died of blood loss, freezing to death, the injuries, hypoxia or exposure to the elements. Did you manage to see on the report?" Wufei asked curiously.

"They were unable to determine the cause of death. Something about too many unknown variables. The only agreement was that it was painfully." Wufei nodded and smiled. Duo shook his head grinning. Disturbed. That was the word. How this knowledge made him feel happy and relieved at the same time. He had to be disturbed.

He had already known that about himself.

Wufei had finished eating and was watching Duo. "You are probably wondering when we are going to begin the missions to help the Preventers." Wufei stated and Duo looked up from his food. "The answer is not for a while. What we are planning to do is dangerous for both of us and we will be instantly given away if as soon as we show up things start going wrong for Marcus and Eckpo. We won't go in until I thought about the approach and we have learned to trust each other a little more. Do you understand?" Wufei asked.

Duo nodded. It sounded like a reasonable conclusion. He looked around the small home and thought for a bit. There wasn't much to do around here. It would probably end up being very boring.

Perhaps that was exactly what he needed right now. The Preventers would have to wait.

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TBC...

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Well there we go. Hope you are still enjoying this. I know it's long and I keep updating sporadically. I swear I'm trying to get better about it and I do feel really guilty when more then two weeks goes by.

Ciao, Silverserpent


	33. Chapter 33

Hello! Another chapter for you all, Happy Valentine's day I am showing you my love by posting. Woot. Also because I got 4 reviews on the last two chapters which means 1 more then the last time. Double woot!

I am pimping my story Years of the Past here as well. It's a one-shot and a song-fic (Inspired by a song I guess) which I have never done before and I have only gotten 1 feed back thing that told me it was really really sad. Which I guess is what I was going for... This is probably not making you want to read it. But I would like to know how I did if possible, so I can be like Oh I should write more like that! Or GOD NO KILL IT WITH FIRE AND NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!

Anyways... yeah... ON with the FIC!

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Ch33

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The weeks after that breakfast morning there was a sort of routine set. They would end up going for walks in the wilderness surrounding the house. Duo still had no concept of where they were exactly, but he was fine with it. When they returned, lunch would happen and afterward Wufei would go out in front of the house and move through a fascinating series of martial arts forms that Duo had yet to be able to identify, but he remembered them from the war when they were housed together. It always seemed to leave him in a trance like state of relaxation after watching Wufei move so fluidly. He didn't feel like learning. There was no point. He knew that it taken Wufei years to master and they each had their own fighting styles. He would not want the new influence to destroy his own style. Any sort of hesitation in a fight could mean that he would end up with more than a few teeth missing. More like the possibility of having a new hole somewhere on his person and that was not a thought that was very enticing.

Afterward he and Wufei would either chat or read or do their own thing. Duo had started to carve random sculptures in wood that he found in on the ground during their morning hikes. Or he would go walk and set his feet in the stream. Dinner and random conversation would follow. From there they would sleep, he still stayed out on the couch, but occasionally either because what they talked about that day brought his nightmares screaming to the forefront of his thoughts, or because Wufei seemed to know that he needed the company - he would come and camp out on the sofa with Duo like the first night. They had gotten so used to it that Wufei even let his feet touch Duo's at night some time and not wake up. Duo had tested it. He hadn't stirred.

It was a strange and unique experience to be given after all this time Being alone with Wufei. He used to be so high strung and standoffish that it was not often Duo would find himself in a position to watch the other teen move or have him cook and actually share casual conversations with him. Most seemed to be filling him in on what was happening with the Preventers or how he had been feeling terribly put out, but Duo never had the fear that Wufei was simply having him here to gather intelligence to be utilized against them. This had been the closest Duo had come to a vacation since… well… never. Duo had never had a vacation, but this was the most relaxed he had felt in his life. And he didn't even know where he was in the world; it was just him and Wufei at this little house in the middle of nowhere presumably outside of New Tokyo somewhere. He had not bothered to turn on any sort of electronics except when he used Wufei's laptop to email Heero that they were fine and relearning each other's patterns again. He was supposed to check in weekly under orders of Une, but he had only checked in twice in the last three and a half weeks.

The idea that he had to report this to Une was starting to chafe a little at the thought actually. Wufei had some good points about how the government and organizations like the Preventers had caused most of his problems. And in turn Duo had begun to except and see his logic as true. The knock on effect that everything had in their lives. Every one of the pilots was drowning instead of living peacefully in what they had fought for. It wasn't fair to any of them in the least. The only one who seemed okay after all of this was Wufei. Sure he was unbalanced at times, but they all were and had a uniquely sick sense of humor that each accepted. Still though, Wufei had to go through hell before he could even get to the cool headed calm place he seemed to find himself in.

It looked like the pilots were wrong to think that the best place for them after the war had ended would have been with the Preventers. It appeared that it was the worst place for them. Supposedly it would benefit the world, but they had given up so much. Why would they have to keep fighting now? When was it there turn to relax and enjoy their own lives for what they were supposed to be? Free to do as they wanted?

Duo stopped thinking so hard about the consequences of being a war hero and a pilot when he heard the soft padding across the grass of Wufei approaching. He was sitting with his feet in the creek and Wufei was just getting done with his exercises. "You look as if you have a lot on your mind, Duo."

"Not much" he returned. "Just feel more like me then I have in quite a while." Duo shrugged at Wufei's calm words and had a small grin on his lips. "Just feeling a little rebellious I suppose."

"Ah." Wufei returned. "Yes I believe I have memory of a prankster that never knew when to quit. Is he making a comeback soon? Should I be checking my shampoo bottle for green tint?"

Duo looked over at Wufei and snorted, "I didn't think you remembered me doing that to Quatre!" He laughed. "I didn't even think that you were there during that time in the safe house…"

"I wasn't." Wufei confirmed. "Quatre made a request that I stop by and scare the living bejessus out of you if I remember and I thought my com screen was off because his hair was tinted so green." He snorted and looked up at the canopy of the trees, "I believe I was fiddling with the screen for a week, before he confirmed that it had been one of your more illustrious pranks."

Duo grinned wider. "He was mad." He stated. And silence fell between them. Wufei took the time to roll up his sweat pants and stick his feet in the cool water next to Duo.

"We'll be going to work soon." Wufei stated. An opening into a longer more involved conversation that had to take place.

Duo frowned and the small smile disappeared. "You think that we are ready?"

"Yes I do."

Do was quiet and decided that Wufei would be the one to talk first since he was the one that was so eager to start this mission. It was a silly sentiment he knew, but it bothered him that he would be taken away from this place when he just now began to feel like he was relaxing enough and becoming himself once again. Wufei seemed to sense that.

"Duo, you know this to be one of my safe houses. Now that you have seen it I can't keep it as one. How about it be a place for us to come together if we are both lost in the future. You can always come on your own as well and stay as long as you want." Wufei supplied. At once Duo was both hurt and understood the proposition. They were comfortable around each other, but that did not mean that Wufei trusted him enough to keep this as a safe house over all. It was a stupid assumption that he would. But he was thrilled that Wufei would suggest that he could come by at any time and only they would know about it. Duo nodded and his frown lessened somewhat.

"I don't know how you do it Wufei." Duo said. "How can you so calmly tell everything that I am thinking? It's unnerving. I can't come close to reading you."

"Eventually you will." He said. "When you gain your own peace you will understand where I am coming from at all times. There will be no living with you at that point that is for sure." He joked. They were quiet for a bit longer when Wufei cut in, "Now back to the task at hand. We need to begin to prepare for the actuality of working with in these groups as I have previously established relations with. The only way I can think to have you come on is as a comrade that feels betrayed as I did and wants to flip. That means that you are going to reveal some very sensitive data, Duo. Data and expertise that they can utilize. My first thought is that you supply them with some information that would allow you to seem as if you really do want to help and then perhaps to send you to do mechanics work."

"You have a group of mechanics?" Duo said a little surprised by the notion. "You guys are gun runners. Why would you need a mechanic?"

"We need a mechanic first for our vehicles and equipment, which I know that you have expertise as well as contact in the sweepers to get you parts. It is also for the rebuilding of mobile suits." Wufei stated and looked over at Duo to see how he would react.

React he did. "You want me to help the gun runners rebuild suits?! That's insane Wufei. We don't actually want them running around with working artillery do we?"

Wufei sighed. "No we don't but the dealers get a better price when we deliver goods that already work. You can work in computer errors if you want to delay each ones movement. Or install tracking devices on a couple so we can begin to send tips to the Preventers on where they are going and who they are being shipped out to, but Duo, if we don't tread carefully you and I will both end up dead. I already told you I take care of myself."

It was a threat and Duo knew it to be, but he couldn't help that fact that it stung. Knowing that he had to was not making it any easier to come to terms with. How could Wufei even consider such a thing after all they had done together? Wufei's hand landed on his shoulder. "I understand that this might be difficult for you considering the way the last undercover operation mission went for you Duo, but I need you to understand the consequences of not performing like I need you to perform. The position I am giving you is one that will keep you from having to kill people and will allow you to easily feed information I may not have to the Preventers in ways that will not get us caught. This sd all very important. You understand that right?" Wufei asked.

Duo could understand. He knew the need of all of this. "Yes, Wufei. I will only listen to you. There will be no orders from Une penetrating my brain I promise. Hell, it won't even be that hard to pretend to hate the Preventers now. Not after everything they have put all of us though. All of my friends." Wfuei did not comment on the use of the word friend. He never did. Duo could not tell if he was disappointed by that fact or accepting of it. Wufei had always been a little apart from friendly tidings, even though he knew he had felt that kinship at one point in the past, he was just never one act or expose emotions on it. It was who Wufei was.

"There is one other thing," Wufei stated quietly. "You are going to have to come in as my companion."

Duo looked up violet eyes flashing wide, "What?!" He spluttered, "What do you mean your companion?!"

"Exactly how it sounds unfortunately." Wufei said back not looking at Duo. He was looking at his toes through the water's glistening surface. "Marcus respects the power people hold over others. We've come to that understanding over an individual that works for him whose name is Trent. This boy Trent will literally do anything to please Marcus. It is his simpering way." Duo heard the slight bitterness in the tone of Wufei's steely voice and couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. Wufei was upset over the outcome of a lackey of Trent. It almost felt… like dejection. "He will not trust you so soon after you tried to spy on his operation for the Preventers unless you are under a similar type of control. Especially someone of your skill set." All he knows is that I have been on a bitter revenge streak against Donovan, which is why he never did business with him in the first place. He did not want to be dragged into the fray." Wufei stopped talking. His vision was far off, thinking of something that was nowhere near them now.

"Trent was your cell mate." Duo stated. It wasn't a question. But it was at the same time. Wufei would know that.

"Yes."

"What happened?" Duo asked hesitantly He knew he was prying, but after these last weeks perhaps it was now time for Wufei to do more of the talking then Duo about this past year.

Wufei sighed and ran his hand over his hair, catching strays that had fallen out during his workout and tucking them safely behind an ear. "Nothing I wish to discuss right now." He said. He seemed to be closing himself off again. Duo knew he needed to stop prying when Wufei was getting like this. He would get agitated if he kept pushing and refuse to talk with Duo for the rest of the day. He wouldn't cook dinner either so Duo would be left to fend for himself. He knew that. It had happened early in the first week here. "I'm sure you will find out anyways if we end up doing this mission together anyways like planned." He conceded. "So will you do it? I know that it is a lot to ask, but this is the only way I see this as being feasible. Otherwise the first sign of trouble he will tell me to kill you." And I won't hesitate was left off at the end, but Duo knew it was there. A threat that was waiting unspoken.

"I will be you concubine, Wufei. Do you require nightly massages?" Duo batted his eyelashes at the teen next to him.

Wufei snorted and shoved Duo sideways. "You are insufferable." He returned and got up from the creek bed to head towards the house. He would shower now and either read or begin to think about what they would eat for dinner.

Duo sighed and splashed his toes in the water. It would be fine. He would miss this creek bed and the sounds of the wilds out here, but at least he was feeling more like himself then he had in a long time. It was beginning to feel normal between him and Wufei again, like old times. He shook his head defeated. If only it felt like this between all of the pilots. Like it used to be.

It was sad that in a time of supposed peace, he was wishing for the times of war.

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TBC

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Things are about to get interesting... Hope you enjoyed... Reviews feed my plot bunnies and my plot bunnies feed the story and the stry hopefully makes you happy or entertained or gives you something to make fun of, which hopefully gets me more reviews! It's a circle! Invest in the circle. Be the circle. Enjoy the circle.

Sorry. I've had a lot of brownies this morning.

Breakfast of freaking champions

-Silverserpent


	34. Chapter 34

Hey guys! Thank you so much. Thanks you soooo much for the reviews! It is encouraging and strangely it is very difficult to find time to write these days. The shole I am trying to be a productive adult thing ruins it.

Anyways! I appreciate them just as I appreciate you all!

On with the Fic!...

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Ch 34

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The screen blipped on at the other end switching from the darkness to the image of Marcus filling the screen. His hair was clean and gelled to the side in the way he had kept it since he was able to get out from the prison. His broad smile seemed to spread widely across his face showing many glistening white teeth. He looked both pleased and surprised as soon as he surmised who the person calling him in fact was. "Wufei! How good of you to finally call. I have been sending you emails and you have not been responding. Shame on you." He leaned forward on his desk locking his fingers together and smiling serenely at the screen. "I'm glad to see you in one piece. It seems as though revenge has treated you well."

"It has." Wufei responded. Short and clipped. It was how Marcus was used to dealing with him anyways. It would be comforting to him to see that Wufei had not changed much in the months he had left to go on his hunting game after all things Donovan.

"I did enjoy your little love note with the picture of his guts hanging out. His face looked like he was positively in pain and well worked over. You are welcome for any of the assistance I was able to provide of course. Have you given any thought to any of my emails? Coming back into the fold? You were quite the ideas man; even if your information is now outdated as far as the Preventers go we could always utilize you in other positions. I was quite disappointed when you took off last time. It was an unfortunate incident you had to see I am sure." He smiled deviously knowing full well that he was courting the ire of Wufei and simply not caring.

"Actually yes I have given it some thought and I would like to come back into the fold. I dealt damage to Donovan and now my life seems strangely boring. Plus anything to gain vengeance on a government that thought to throw me away is always a bonus as well. But I do have one new caveat." Wufei stated. He waited. The man was patient when it came to gaining ground, but never when it came to potentially important information.

"Oh? And what would that be Wufei?" He was trying to not look too interested. Wufei could read it through the small screen of the untraceable connection on his laptop.

"I have acquired a new companion of sorts, one that would be a very overqualified asset to operations for you. A pet in the way that Trent is to you." Wufei smirked at the camera.

Marcus's eyebrows rose at Wufei's words. "Really now? You have found someone that suits your tastes and is an asset you say? I am intrigued. You don't speak highly of many people. Do I happen to know who this one is?" He frowned wary. He seemed to know the answer was something he would not welcome before Wufei could confirm or deny it.

"Duo Maxwell."

The silence over the lines was deafening except for the high pitched whines these coms sometimes gave off with solar interferences.

"Maxwell you say. Pilot zero two of deathscyth. He is your…pet?" He was frankly skeptical and Wufei could read that intensely through the screen. He was not having the information that had been lobbed his way. There was no way that Duo Maxwell would be owned by anyone. Not the one from the war that was spontaneous and said fuck everyone including death. There was no way.

"Times have changed and he has too. He has an interesting tale of woe and I have been gone for some time. It was not that hard to convince him that I care and that Une was the enemy that we were all trying to face down and destroy. That the Preventers had now turned into oppressors and needed to be dealt with. I found him injured and he is clinging to me as if I was the only thing keeping him in this life." Marcus's face showed he still did not believe the words that were coming out of Wufei's mouth. "We should meet and you can listen to him and see for yourself. He is not the same trickster that you would fondly remember."

"No one changes that much." Marcus challenged.

"I did." The line was silent, but it looked as if he was thinking rather than completely concluded with the conversation. "It took me two months in solitaire to come out the other side a brutal shell of who I was as you well know. It has been much longer than that since you have seen him. The last time you supplied him was over two years ago. He's changed." Wufei insisted.

"You won't come back into the fold without him." Marcus asked and Wufei nodded. "We'll meet on my terms. I will send you the destination and we will meet. I will see Duo myself in person and we'll go from there. If there is any possibility that this is a trap for me Wufei I will have you executed on the spot with Duo. If he does not show up the same thing applies only it will be a hunting game. Am I making myself clear?"

"Perfectly." Wufei said. "We must all take precautions in times of hostility I understand."

"You and he are to come alone. I will of course be bringing an armed entourage to use force if I have to. I'll send you the details shortly." The line went dead as Marcus hung up. He seemed a little disturbed at the end there. Like rage was just at the end of his range and he was planning on taking it there soon. Wufei shut the laptop down and looked over at Duo who had been sitting on his bed.

"Do you still think that you are up for this?" He asked. It was more out of courtesy then actual questioning if Duo would be able to handle this undercover mission. He knew they were ready or he would not be contacting Marcus asking to let Duo into an operation. It would be too risky otherwise. He was asking because after all he did just call Duo his pet… Hopefully the violet eyed boy would be okay with this. It was going to take actual acting on his part.

"Yes master Chang." He stuck his tongue out in jest. It was the most Duo move that Wufei had seen yet since he had brought Duo from Neo Tokyo. The time here had been good for him it seemed. Wufei packed away his laptop for now and got up to go to the kitchen. It was nearly lunch; he'd check for instructions from Marcus on a meet up spot soon. He paused when he felt a hesitant hand on his elbow. Turning there was Duo looking concerned and hesitant.

"Is something wrong Duo? Pertaining to the mission perhaps?" Wufei ask. If there were any concerns it was important to talk it over now when he knew that he was not being monitored or bugged.

"It's just. I feel like I should mention it. Your contract… You know that makes you a target for the government right? You know that as soon as they stop needing you it's going to be your death sentence right?" He looked honestly concerned. Wufei tried not to let any emotion play across his face.

"You let me be worried about that when the time comes. Right now they have no idea where we are and how to kill me if that was what they wanted even." Wufei said and left the room quickly.

Duo. He had that effect on people, the ability to make them care. It was frustrating and something he had been coming to terms with since he began having to be around the boy constantly. He invariably got under skin and wouldn't leave.

Wufei shook his head and went to the kitchen. Shortly later Duo came out and sat on the couch reading a book. He had found some of the few that Wufei had in English. There weren't many since he preferred his Ancient Chinese philosophers that were long dead, but there were a few English books among the shelves.

He turned and attempted to focus on his work in the fridge. He needed to get his freedom from the oppression of being hunted constantly and now he had that in exchange for working with the Preventers. He knew that they would not let him off if he did not have some sort of a permanent watcher and that night after visiting Une he went to the emails in the war to see if there was any insight into his old fellow pilots. Duo's countless emails had instantly caught his attention. He read them straight to dawn that morning. And was disturbed to find that he had fallen into some form of understanding of what was happening to Duo in his life. It was dismaying to someone who had vowed to be independent from any relationships.

But it had given him a way to have a handler that wouldn't report on everything he did. If he could show Duo the folly in trusting the organization the way that he did; if he could show him what was going wrong with that entire thought process really, then perhaps it would be okay. Perhaps he could be free and get away with not being monitored constantly. It was worth a shot. And that shot was Duo.

Except these last few weeks actual emotions began to get entangled in the conversation and would blind side him without him realizing. Duo appeared to be accepting everything he was saying at face value. It wasn't as if Wufei was set out to deceive Duo in any way, it just was that he had no interest in being friends again. He had spouted about trust, but he didn't trust Duo, as the saying went, as far as he could throw him. There was no way that he would be accepting his help if he was in a jam. What he had warned Duo was the truth. If it came to it he would shoot him dead.

But every once in a while his conscious would whisper no you wouldn't and it would throw Wufei through a loop again. This was not what he wanted. He did not want to be tied down. He wanted his freedom and he was getting it. That was it. Nothing would stand in his way. Not Une. Not Marcus. Not the other pilots. Not Relena Peacecraft herself and certainly not Duo. It just would not happen.

Marcus had requested that Wufei meet him in an abandoned warehouse on a burnt out district of Moscow. The old one. It was cold of course. There were not many times of the year where the Russian area of the Eurasia continent was warm. Duo was bundled up in a wool coat that matched Wufei's black one. They had picked them up on the way now that they knew the destination that Marcus wanted them to meet him at. When they stepped inside the vacant building it wasn't noticeably warmer, but at least it blocked the wind that would have dropped the temperatures to a much more frigid environment. A team of men approached them as Wufei had been expecting. Marcus never lied when he said he was going to do something. They had men training guns on them as the others stepped closer to pat them down for guns. They were asked to take their jackets off and were patted down again. Wufei had made it very clear to Duo that he wasn't even supposed to have knives on him. He allowed himself a gun, but Marcus would know that Wufei never went anywhere without one. It was an innate trait of the pilot.

When the entourage was satisfied one got on his cell phone and called in to wherever Marcus was waiting and they were handed their coats back. From the other end of the hanger Marcus approached with his ever present lackey Trent at his side. Wufei stepped forward and Duo stepped in time behind him and off to the side. He never strayed more than a foot away from Wufei. He had schooled his features down to what hopefully would be seen as a neutral compliance, with a touch of hard edge to it as Wufei had asked him to.

They met in the middle of the hanger and Wufei nodded to Trent and Marcus. Trent had the courtesy to turn a little pink and look at the floor. Wufei tried to not let anything slide onto his features by Trent's move. "Hello Wufei. It is good to see you. And Duo too. This feels like such a reunion. We just need your Gundams on flatbeds and the beginnings of haggling prices for this to be exactly like old times. I do miss those. Business was booming." He looked at both of the smaller teens and nodded to Duo, "So I hear that you supposedly want to work for me. Why should I believe you?"

Duo didn't say anything until Wufei turned his face in his direction and nodded. Giving permission. "I have been treated poorly under Une and the Preventers. I am not interested in working for them any longer."

"But you could do anything then? Why us?" Marcus probes further.

Duo looked to Wufei before answering. "You know what I was doing for the Preventers. You tried to have me killed. I almost let that happen. They also put me in a position where I had to kill children. I would like to pay them back for that." Marcus studied him for a bit. Looking for the deceit that he could smell, before looking over at Wufei.

"I don't see how this could work." Marcus said.

Wufei shook his head. "Then it appears neither of us will be working for you." Wufei turned swiftly to walk back in the other direction and Duo moved to follow hovering close not leaving that foot comfort zone.

They were halfway to the door when Marcus's voice rang out. "Wait." He called out.

Wufei turned and stated, "I do not like being jerked around Marcus. You of all people should know that." Marcus waived a hand as if asking for forgiveness and asking them to come back over at the same time.

"What would you suggest he do for us?" Marcus asked. He was considering it. Wufei could tell.

"I would think he would make an excellent mechanic." Wufei suggested. He turned and put his hand on Duo's cheek, whom to his surprised leaned into it and half lidded his eyes like he yearned for it. "You have suits that need to be repaired before they are shipped to your loyal customers. He can easily fix them."

"They don't need to be fixed." Marcus pointed out, but his eyes were narrowed on Duo even though Wufei had relinquished his touch from Duo's face. Trent look shocked.

Wufei scoffed "Of course they do if you want double or triple the profit. He is the best." Wufei praised. "You know that it is difficult for your customers to get the suits working since the government protocol that registered all mobile suit mechanics locations went out. They can't hire them or have them move without arousing suspicion. Duo would increase your profits on each one at least double if not more."

"I suppose." Marcus began. He was almost to the breaking point. Wufei could sense it. But if he pushed too hard, it could end it. He will already be watching them once they began working for him; any shoving would make it be nearly impossible to do anything to defuse the rings. "What exactly would you gain by this Wufei?"

"You need me to edge out competitors and tell you Preventer tactics. I want Duo close by and out of harm's way. I take care of what is mine." He glared eyes narrowing at Marcus, who smirked back in what he must have considered as understanding. "Besides, no one you have can match his prowess on any mission I may need assistance on. He would be helping me out in many more ways than one."

They stood there staring at each other, waiting for the other to flinch. Trent who was never very good at sitting still kept looking at Wufei to the ground to Duo and back to Wufei. The adrenaline and victory was beginning to rise within Wufei. He could feel it.

"Fine." Conceded Marcus. "He can begin as soon as he kills someone that you order." Duo didn't even flinch next to him. Just stood stock still. He wasn't the boisterous young boy that Marcus remembered from the war that was for sure. He was grown up and deadly. Shadowing Wufei and Wufei was a twisted being of his former self.

Wufei grinned serenely. "I was hoping you would say that." Wufei replied letting a smile he knew came off as more killer then anything else seep onto his face. He knew it because it was the same one he felt when he was carving into Donovan on the Martian surface beneath his respirator. "Do we have to limit it to one? I know exactly which people I have in mind."

"One for now, Wufei. Let's not be greedy."

* * *

TBC...

* * *

The circle worked last time. Lets see it work again! Please. (Giving you googily eyes)

-Silverserpent


	35. Chapter 35

Duo's face popped up on the screen and he smiled viscously. "This is for you, love." And he blew a quick kiss at the screen before the camera swung around and jumbled a bit before straightening out and fixing in a location. He was off and moving towards a house that had a few lights on in the downstairs. The camera saw flashes of his arms, making it seem fixed at chest level. Sneaking around the house a drain pipe was easily and quickly scaled taking him to the second level. The wall moved sideways in the view as he swung out from the drain pipe with hardly a squeal. A quick disorienting roll off the window ledge crotch shot and unfolding into a room silently indicated his tumbling quickly and silently through a window into the house. He began moving slower in the darkness of the hallways and rooms of his mark.

Checking all the rooms like a good assassin would for signs of movement and life he moved down stairs. Not one noise could be heard watching the silent and ominous movements on the screen. The light in the downstairs room shot through the screen as the camera adjusted to the new light sources. The television was on and blaring and the figure in the lounge chair seemed to not be moving. Asleep. Duo crept closer into the room pausing, probably scanning for other people in the home. He stepped up behind the figure and pointed a gun at the top of his head and held it there for a few seconds. He was showing off at that point. Saying look at what I can do. Instead the gun retreated out of camera view, probably being tucked away as before. And a chord came into view. A large loop slipped over the chair and over the man's head.

The victim woke with that and there was a short struggle and blurring of the camera as hands tightened the rope and pulled, slowly suffocating the man into unconscious. When he stopped fighting the image began blurring with activity. Lugging the man into the kitchen and tying him up to a chair. Duo swept the ground floor to make sure there were absolutely no other occupants and shut the blinds in many of the rooms, before heading back into the kitchen. The camera was removed from his chest mount and sat on some surface pointing at the man trussed to the chair, unconscious. Duo strolled slowly on screen sideling up to the man, conscious of the camera and trying to give it the best view. He slapped the man twice to wake him up and he came too abruptly and looked pretty dazed.

"Who are you?" He shouted.

"That's not important." Duo stepped closer and pointed a blade at the man's eye and then at the camera. "That is what we are working with today. If you could please state your name for posterity."

The man's gaze shifted from the camera to Duo's thin frame and an arm quickly darted out jamming a knife into the ma's shoulder. He yelled loudly and Duo pulled the knife back out. "Name." Came a deep throated command. It was bordering on the sounds of Shingami about to come loose.

"Alan Scott." The victim groaned out. "My name is Alan Scott. Please. Let me go. Please."

Duo smirked at the camera and leaned down next to the man, "Why do you think I am here?"

"I don't know." He spoke quietly, but let out another loud yell when Duo's knife had once again shot out and slammed into the top of the man's thigh, before pulling the blade free.

"Does the name Wufei Chang ring a bell?" came Duo's haunting whisper "He was very upset to find out he was being held for however long you all deemed he should be because you were under a judge for taking bribes. He was bribing you with keep his job, in order to keep my Wufei in jail. Does that seem right to you?"

"No. No. No it isn't." He rambled out tears were coming down his face either from pain or fear, "Please. I know it wasn't. Please let me go!" He was cringing and blood seemed to be flowing slowly but steadily from his shoulder and knee. Duo was good enough that he would not have hit a main vein or artery.

Duo squatted low and was playing with the tip of his braid, almost sing-songing, "No. I don't think so." He sounded almost giddy. "I wouldn't have gone to all this trouble, if I was simply going to be letting you go. Now would I?" Alan had a strong look of fear break through his tears fixed on Duo.

Duo stood up swiftly and circled around the back of the chair that was holding Alan rigidly upright in bonds and he softly almost caressed the man's face and hooked his left hand around his chin from behind. He turned his mouth to the man's ear and whispered, "Because you admitted you're wrong this will be swift." The man's breathe caught in his throat and his eyes went wide. Duo's gaze fixed on the camera, eyes glittering, a wicked grin on his face as he crooned, "This is for you, Wufei." And he wrenched the man's head backwards and the other came up swiftly and drew a knife deep across his throat, neck gushing from the thin wound. There was choking gurgling from Alan's body and a few bubbles of blood emerged from his mouth. Duo walked back over to the camera and let it run for a good five minutes until the blood stopped pulsing from the gaping neck.

The screen went dark.

"Well?" Wufei said with an 'I told you so' smirk on his face. "Does that show you how Duo is under my control? I have another target in mind if you have further need of proof." Marcus face wasn't surprised at all, but it was more pale than usual. He looked vaguely sick. Wufei had seen Duo at his worst during the war. It sometimes took time for Shinigami to calm himself after battle; the video was nothing to get squeamish about.

Marcus cleared his throat and looked away from the vidscreen that had been playing Duo's surveillance from his job for Wufei, "Well I must say that I am impressed." He admitted, "I thought I caught a lucky break converting you to the cause, but to have Maxwell as well? That's just pure joy for me."

Wufei snorted. "You mean that Maxwell works for me of course. You would not be implying that he works for you."

Marcus nodded and flashed a false smile, "Of course. I think that video just as well proves how dangerous he is and how much he seems to want to work for you. It is magnificent. How did you do it exactly."

Wufei shook his head and got up from his seat, "You know you do not give away your best trade secrets. That would be foolish of me." He stopped his teasing tone, "So he can begin working for the operation."

Marcus nodded, "Yes. I would like to kick some ideas around with you as well, if you give me the chance." Marcus waved him out of the office after Wufei had given him a nod of acknowledging the thought. Leaving the office, Wufei immediately found Duo who had been sitting still under the watchful gaze of Marcus's bodyguards.

"Hey." He got up and slinked over to Wufei, bringing his arms on Wufei's shoulders and loosely letting them intertwine. He smirked and licked his lips, "Did I do good?" He purred. Fucking purred.

Wufei was trying to stop a smile form breaking out on his face, but it was exceedingly difficult. "Yes. You did real good. Come on lets head out for right now. You are going to start working soon and I need to show you the ropes." He pushed Duo's arms off his shoulders and easily stepped out and away. Duo stayed close like he always did. A foot away just behind Wufei's right shoulder, keeping pace.

"Wufei!" Came a sharp call from the end of the hall.

Wufei turned to look back and see Trent moving from around the corner. He paused and Duo turned to face the man approaching as well stood between them till Wufei tapped his elbow. He stepped aside and hovered behind him a foot away. "Hello Wufei." Trent said again. He seemed nervous and twitchy. "How have you been?" Wufei raised one eyebrow at Trent. Just to point out that his time was being wasted. "Yeah, sorry right. Don't know why I asked that just a waste of time." His eyes skipped quickly over to Duo before they slid back to his initial target, "Look. I'm sorry for…You know. Last time. We just… I mean… He told me to -"

Wufei interrupted, "Yes, I know what he told you to do. Is there anything else?" He was attempting a look of complete disdain and if the way Trent was wincing was anything to go by, he was succeeding quite well.

"No. That's all. Glad you're back." His eyes switched to Duo quickly, before Wufei turned away completely. He didn't know how Duo was reacting to all of this. He was a smart boy and Trent had the social ineptitude of a walrus trying to climbs stairs at times. When he started to walk away again at top speed there was no calling voice to stop him and no one got in his way. He and Duo were retreating for the night. Wufei had set up housing near all the main areas that Marcus worked near and had never told him of their locations so he was comfortable with heading back to one instead of finding a new place now that he was working with the infamous gun runner again.

As for Duo knowing, well he had already showed him one of his abodes, and these had all been set up very much in the same way. Might as well take him to this new one. Eventually Marcus would want them to move into housing units in main operations when they were to go full swing into working for him, so they may as well take advantage of knowing they were fine to discuss whatever and at ease to drop their masks for the mean time instead of wearing them full time.

Wufei drove the small vehicle with Duo in the passenger seat away from the three story building that was housing Marcus's operations. It was probably set to be demolished by some bogus construction company soon, that was owned by Marcus. He was very good at seeking out ways to avoid detection. He had survived the war as a dealer to the Gundams, so he was extremely intelligent. Wufei was actually keen to pick up some tricks that he was sure he hadn't thought of or thought to conceive really.

Duo was suspiciously quite on the way home. Wufei was confident that he knew there were no devices that could have been planted, but the stillness was altering his perspective on what was happening with Duo internally. He had been quiet for the majority of the time that he had been around Wufei, sure, he had changed and Wufei accepted that about him, but this was a very contemplative silence rather than a trying not to think silence that had been a part of him.

Wufei decided to leave it alone. Duo would come straight out with what he was thinking as soon as he had thought over what he wanted to ask and say. He was deliberate when he questioned things. He wasn't over analytical like Heero, but he seemed to be able to cut to the heart of most matters quickly. At least when he had confidence in himself. It might be good if he was starting to gain that back, but that didn't mean that Wufei wanted to face a cunning third degree inquisition either.

They arrived at a townhome complex where Wufei had the home furthest from the street. He parked in front of his garage and hopped out of the car with his duffle. Duo followed suit with the new kit of clothes that he had picked up on the way from a general store. No specialties any time soon, not until he knew what he needed for the jobs he was going to commit. He had stealth gear for that first assignment that he had pulled for Wufei on Alan Scott, but other than that it was the usual under wear, tooth brush, hair, brush, hair ties.

Opening the door Wufei quickly keyed in the alarm codes to deactivate his system. It looked as if no one had been there since he had last been here maybe eight months ago, which was a good sign. Marcus was fond of the Mediterranean. It was difficult to find secured lodgings there with all the desire for architecture from civilizations long dead, but Wufei was able to add some of his own security features.

There were three bedrooms, one master suits and two small ones. Wufei had taken the master room and knew that the way Duo began exploring quickly he would be taking one of the smaller ones soon. When Wufei relaxed and stretched his spine for a bit then sat on the couch and gazed out the window. Really though. The Mediterranean. There was a reason that people always thought this was an area for romance. It was beautiful.

Duo came in and sat down on the couch as well. It was smaller than the one they had been on before Wufei noted, when Duo's knee brushed his leg He shifted away from it. "You're in." Wufei said quietly.

"Oh goodie." Duo returned and smiled at him quickly. "When do I start?"

"Some time in the next few weeks. To begin with you will only be working on days that I will be working in the facilities." Wufei added on, "We need to maintain the idea that you are only there because I am there and you'd leave if I did."

Duo giggled, "Yes, because I can't be without my Wufei ever again." He went a little still at that joke before shrugging both mentally and physically it seemed and relaxing back into the couch. "So why can't we just kill the bastard and be done with this again?" Duo asked pointedly.

Wufei grinned at him, "Because I don't know where he keeps his information. I've been gone from his organization for quite some time. Things have probably changed around and he was never really trusting to begin with. We need the information from his rings more than we need him."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Lead us to all the other baddies of the world. I know."

Wufei was silent for a while, before he questioned, "Where did you learn to act the way you did?" With the arms on the shoulders and the words in the camera?" It seemed so real, was left off from Wufei's question. Duo was able to be all over him without being all over him. And the way he said things with a voice that was his, but deeper and…

Stop thinking about it.

Duo grinned broadly, "You like that? Most of the time it's just instinct. But occasionally I'll remember how some of the leading ladies moved from very old movies and I'll try and channel that. Make it interesting. The following close to you that is just Heero when he is focused on someone. Same body language, just a different type of possessiveness seen in new ways I suppose." He shrugged. It obviously made sense to him and Wufei thought he was doing an excellent job, so it wasn't like he was going to ask him to change it any time soon.

They fell quiet and stared out at the ocean view and Wufei felt that he had to ask, "Was it hard to kill him? You looked very… into killing him."

Duo was still for a full two minutes until he shrugged and said softly, "I meant it you know. What I said in the video. I did it for you." Wufei frowned when he looked over at Duo's profile. "He wasn't exactly innocent or anything, not like those kids. He helped tear us all apart. I don't think you quite trust me still… So I did enjoy it a bit. Exacted my own revenge on him in a way. And it was all for you." He looked over at Wufei sitting on the couch and their eyes locked, just looking at each other.

Wufei could feel his blood pumping a little quicker looking at the eyes of deathscythe pilot that had been glittering with bloodlust on the video earlier that day. He could feel a bit of anger that he was holding towards Duo threatened to be soothed away entirely. How did he do it? How could he just cut to the core issue of a problem so easily? How did he know the faint traces of anger still remained in him? And to do something like this, because he asked him to? It was something a friend would do-

No.

"You should message Heero with an update before we eat dinner and sleep for the night. My laptop is in my bag." Wufei got up from the couch and away from Duo as quickly as he could, attempting to put space between them. Maybe he was being honest. Maybe he was attempting to manipulate Wufei as Wufei initially was him to turn him away from the Preventers. What he had said to Marcus was made up of half-truths and half-lies it seemed.

Duo didn't move. Wufei moved away. It would be a good time to take a shower. That would be a good idea. He began leaving towards his bedroom when Duo asked, "What happened between you and Trent?"

"Nothing." Wufei said swiftly and left the room. Duo had always been good at deduction despite the three foot braid weighing his brain down.


End file.
